Welcome to a world where it’s easy to be your own boss and yet impossible to own a house.
Art has long been replaced by “content”.
Browsing on Instagram is exhausting: what was once a simple lunch is now the centrepiece of the ultimate time and experience.
Everyone is strive mightily. Strategically crafted life updates present career ambitions in press release-style language. Everyone, primarily influencers, is pushing to see who could devote the most time to social media. People who are eager, and ethical, work like a beaver, always producing content and earning money.
Remember our heroes from the nineties, they were a bit slack. In peaceful minds, some who say, “Less intention, more spreading,” remind us that weariness is also humane, and are indifferent about the transcendence of slowness.
Capitalism did not tolerate idleness.
Loose personalities have gradually faded from view since the mid-2000s. Capitalism has not forgiven the slack: surviving in the modern economy has obligated us to transform into something greater than ourselves. Influencers have emerged as the epitome of this broader modern set of values.
Nothing is sacred any longer
Everything is for sale
Art has long been replaced by “content”.
Eco-warrior influencers see no concern in flying long distances on free trips funded by conglomerates. Yoga gurus who preach anti-consumer mysticism can promote Lipton Tea in their subsequent postings. Everyone in their fifties, including me, has probably observed that the cultural change of young people has been pushed aside every decade.
Hippies’ free love movement had produced history’s first sluggish rebels (after Diogenes). The 1980s and 1990s recession brought lethargic rockers in flannel shirts such as Nirvana.
Certainly, generalizing is unwise, yet in the 1990s, there was a popular culture which mostly lax, the absolute opposite of the “strikers” we see now.
In today’s world, where influencer mania has reached a saturation point, real and “fake” characters are mashed together, and brand advertisements are presented as they are content. Corporate collaborations that marketers can’t stop admiring, paired with events, have seriously affected the blogger culture that gave rise merely because they had been sincere in the beginning. Advertising disguised as content has taken the place of authentic content. On the whole, content becomes contentless.
Maybe it’s time to go ease again, what do you think?
Neoliberal Self
Influencers have turned everything from greeting the sunrise to packing their kid’s lunchboxes into an occasion to earn money. Generating income while living your life and not working. Forget the job. Just effort to live. Just because work is life!
The neoliberal self of the time is extroverted, thin, fit, ketogenic or whatever food free (gluten-free, leptin-free, fructose free etc.), attractive, individual, optimistic, hardworking, socially conscious, strong self-worth awareness, and has developed an entrepreneurial mindset and someone has selfie stick within.
And millennials, the generation most identified with this archetype, embraced the neoliberal self enthusiastically while blushingly avoiding the traditional middle-class working life. On the other hand, this system, which imposes itself as the only manner of making business in the increasingly dense economic climate; necessitated a sense of “self-adaptation”. Adapt or starve!
The notion of receiving a diploma and obtaining a job that would enable us to retire at age 55 is no longer an option.
The new generations that can endure such a tough period must continuously adapt and demonstrate that they are the most optimal employees.
Conclusion:
Welcome to a world where it’s easy to be your own boss and yet impossible to own a house. Additionally, a financial system in which thinking about quitting working work at the end of the day or in our later years is inconceivable!
The coming generation perhaps reflects as ‘I can’t believe in an economy where people behave in this manner. The efforts translated into money by the desire for attention seem absurd ‘.
“Selling in the influencer economy” is not just the result, also, it is the ultimate goal.
The preponderance of influencers does not possess a unique talent or craft; instead, they generate income by marketing a fictionalized version of themselves.
In the past, it was only difficult to comprehend the phrase “famous for being famous,” yet nowadays it refers to a vast global economy in which the ones who take selfies sell goods to individuals and follow them!
Well-known people have taken the same route. Writers, actors and actresses, newscasters all of a sudden found themselves selling pots and pans to their followers! Such that sopranos, painters, and ballerinas of high art are starting to follow the same parade.
Engaging with followers at whatever has become a virtue, but recall the times when “selling” was deemed disgraceful.
Although, we can also observe the hints of a resurrection of a lethargic culture, with Gen Z favouring transitory information that fades over long-term content which is considerably more vital for merchandise sales and brand recognition. While the rising trend of ‘Story’ boosted adolescents’ desire for impermanent content, also demonstrated how alienated they are from label environments decorated with influencers. Even Instagram attempted to reduce and remove “likes” in order to stop the monster they had already created.
Is it possible to be loose again?
Even if we acknowledge the gravity of the problem, it is a lofty goal for a city idler to obtain an old middle-class life. Within a roof over our heads, wasted time spent while eating junk food in front of the internet yet not having the intention for branding, and a dog that will not become an Instagram hit. Living in the city on a limited budget is no longer an option.
On the other end, we learned that persistent work and self-improvement do not guarantee the promised and the protected. Neoliberal inequality has reached an all-time high, and it is evident that working tremendously hard will not address the issue.
Although the illusion of investing in the best version of ourselves is promoted with motivational phrases like mantras chanted by life coaches over and over again, asking no is not enough. What is evident is; no, you will not get what you want.
The personal development industry will continue to expand as long as there are losers, but marketing the simple “if we want it enough” life recipe is now becoming progressively hard:/
So, how exactly?
The first step can start with a tiny portion of irritation induced by the idea of beauty being instrumentalized by large brand advertisements. The rise of slackers can begin again, with detachment from things designed for money, dividing fact from fiction, and developing a new aesthetic understanding.
Let’s numb ourselves and relax a tiny bit. Otherwise, we will witness how the human will be dehumanized, just as the content would be decontextualized.
