![]() ![]() The social studies lessons I remember most are the ones about America’s first nouveau riche: the 49ers who gambled it all on the gold rush, not to mention J.D. The self-made success story is inscribed in the concept of Americana. There’s an element of that in these videos because they remind us that we can always do better,” Lee Humphreys, a communications professor at Cornell whose research specializes in how we catalog our lives across social media, told me. “The American ethos ties together self-worth, value, and productivity. But beneath each optimization tip is a scary idea: Raised on the myth of meritocracy, many members of Gen Z who watch these videos have turned to an unsustainable diet of rising and grinding to insulate themselves from the uncertainty of a post-pandemic this helps ☺️ lmk what tiktok I should make next! #fyp #foryou #notion #dailyvlog #aesthetic #macbook #ipad #journal #asian #viral #underrated ♬ original sound. There’s admittedly something soothing about watching people with boundless energy get their lives together, particularly after a year of uncontrollable disarray. “Why would you read 300 pages when you can just figure out in five minutes?” Neil Patel, a digital marketer and author of a New York Times bestseller on productivity, said in a now-deleted Twitter video where he encouraged his followers to swap books for blog posts and Instagram infographics because “you can consume information faster.” You work out because the endorphins make meetings more tolerable. ![]() ![]() You go on vacation because it rejuvenates you ahead of a busy season. In other words, relaxation doesn’t exist in the “study web” unless it serves a clear purpose. “One never exits a kind of work rapture, in which the chief purpose of exercising or attending a concert is to get inspiration that leads back to the desk,” wrote New York Times tech journalist Erin Griffith on this blind devotion to the grind in 2019. The goal, it appears, is to strive constantly, so even self-care is a means to an end. Here, the personal and professional blend. There are Excel celebrities and resume czars and no shortage of morning routines that start at 6 am. There’s #LawTok, where law students film themselves as they make oversized outlines and feel guilty about taking a break for a morning walk. The corporate workflow software Notion has gone viral on TikTok, its hashtag amassing more than 49 million views as teenage creators use it to plan everything from their class schedules to the movies they watch, treating free time as something to be checked off a list. ![]() Now that much of Generation Z is graduating college and plowing into their first adult jobs, the landscape of productivity porn has become more amorphous. Everything is beautiful and pulsating with stress, and pastel notebooks and frothy matcha lattes bracket 15-hour days of studying, work, and “self-improvement.” What began around 2013 with floral bullet-journal spreads and biology notes titled with calligraphy is now a cottage industry with the frenzied energy of a speed run through Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. The genre harks back to what Cybernaut’s Fadeke Adegbuyi dubbed the “ study web,” a network of Tumblr, YouTube, Discord, and Instagram influencers who encourage students to study with aestheticized livestreams and high school hacks. Such is the world of #ProductivityTok, or the suite of young adult content creators whose job is to teach America’s next generation of workers how to live to work. I’ve watched nearly a hundred of her videos over the past four months, and after each binge, I’m convinced that with the right set of stationery and desk tchotchkes, I too can become more other videos do u want to see #fyp #foryou #study #studytok #stationary #DADMOVES #PerfectAsWeAre #pens #pencils #vibe #vlog #vlogs #bujo #music #kpop #song ♬ LATCH SLOWED DOWN - isa Her schtick is gently intimidating and reminds me of when you’d ask the overachiever in your history class for the notes you missed. She tells us which pens you need for seamless notes (no smudging), study methods that guarantee results (active recall), and gadgets that prevent procrastination. Each video is shot at her desk, which features a bubblegum-pink keyboard, a collection of rainbow gel pens, and a peek at her greeting card-esque handwriting. The TikToker in question, is an 18-year-old with nearly 650,000 followers who produces content for the overstressed and underprepared student. In the past month, I haven’t used a single one. Before starting this job, I blew $50 at CVS on neon gel pens, pleather-bound notebooks, and felt-tipped highlighters because a TikToker told me they’d make me enjoy working more. ![]()
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