The Hustle Culture

What is it that you are after? Are you taking care of yourself while you reach it? Why are you pretending to love your work? Will you be satisfied after you reach your goal, or by then you will need more? What is your definition for being successful?

So many questions, only one answer ­– the only thing waiting at the finish line is BURNOUT.

One of the biggest traps of this hustle culture is chasing what others deem “right.” What exactly is hustle culture? In short and clear words, it is more money to make, a bigger title, a higher promotion, etc. But what about, when you have achieved your goals? By then, you are extremely overwhelmed. By the time to reach the milestone, you are already unsatisfied and want more, most of the times because someone else has it.

Social media has played a very important role in promoting the toxic hustle culture. And why blame only social media, this kind of toxic behaviour has been infused into many families since childhood by comparisons. Mr. Sharma’s son got an A in his exams; you too have to study hard to get better. Mrs. Shah’s daughter came first in the race; you have to come first in the next.

Grind, hustle, work hard, etc. words like these have been glorified. Suddenly, talent has become secondary and success depends on long working hours. Time off is seen as laziness. If you are not hustling, you are failing. So damn toxic L

Always ON lifestyle with eventually lead to burnout and depression.

What has anyone got from this hustle culture? Ill health, stress, depression, anxiety, broken relationships, greed, etc. is what you get from nonstop grinding and hustling. Hustle culture started from toxic family behaviours and then it got its boost from social media. Even in my previous post I have mentioned how social media is being misused. The truth is, someone posted a picture of sitting in a lavish restaurant, but is struggling to pay utility bills. Someone posted a picture of living in a huge house or buying a big car, but is actually in debt. Someone posted a picture of a branded watch, but is actually a copy. And the list goes on.

But what do we do? We feel sad seeing all these posts and compare our present situation with theirs. We put in more hours to work to earn that extra money neglecting our health and relations. Only to show others that if they can do it, then even we can. The moment we take a break, people guilt trip us into thinking that we are lazy and we will not reach our goals if we rest.

Allow me to give you a fresh example of what a BIG LIE social media is. The gym that I go for workout, offers members a free a trial before paying for membership. One day when I was working out, I seen a woman come in along with a friend, used all the machines to exercise while her friend was recording her videos, and never showed her face at the gym again. Moral of the story, she used the free trail only to remove videos to post on social media. Do you get my point now!

Hustle culture thrives on stress, fear, guilt and shame. But we forget that an exhausted mind won’t be able to function. Hustle culture glorifies overworking as a badge of honour.  

STOP celebrating this toxic culture and take timely breaks. Do not compare your stage 1 to someone’s stage 3. Learn to be happy and satisfied in what you have while working to reach your goals. Slow down. Take it easy. Life is short. Life is fragile. Don’t bother about what people will say if you have rest days. Don’t take calls if you are exhausted. Eat slowly. Exercise. Have a lazy day once a week. Play with your dog. Get 8 hours sleep. Love the life you have while you are healthy, because in true terms, health is wealth.

Give rest to your mind body often. Because if you get carried away in this toxic hustle culture, your mind and body will automatically take rest, and that will not be an appropriate time for you.

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Misuse of Social Media

The misuse of Social Media

These days’ social media platforms are being more misused than used. And the biggest misuse with social media is “Defamation”. Social Media have become increasingly popular in our day to day lives. Social Media connects people regardless of the geographical boundaries. It is a medium of communication which enables people to interact, share and exchange information, pictures, videos, etc. It also keeps us updated with people’s lives and what’s happening around the world.

Social Media can be used for many good reasons. But many people have chosen to use it otherwise. There are many misuses of Social Media like false and unreliable information, sexual predators, cyber crimes, loss of privacy, show off, bullying, etc. But today, I would specifically want to speak about “Defamation”.

In simple words, Defamation means attacking another’s reputation by a false publication. Negative statements about people or companies appear frequently on various social media sites. This has been creating a menace these days. By just one defamatory post or comment or picture, many evildoers ruin a company’s or a person’s year’s old image and hard work in one go for their selfish motives.

Often times, people slander someone’s image to increase their own popularity on Social Media or cry victim or when they didn’t get what they wanted from that company or person. There can be many other reasons, but personally I have come across these three reasons majorly.

Recently I came across a “so called” educated lady who was verbally bashing a young watchman who apparently wouldn’t allow her to park her car in front of the building gate. Before the watchman could even react to her polished abuses, she clicked his picture without his permission and threatened to upload it on social media sites claiming he didn’t have the sense of talking to a woman.

On another occasion, when I was standing in the queue for Covid Vaccination, the doctors time and again announced that they have only a particular company’s vaccine available for that day, and if anyone wanted the other vaccine, they could come the other day. Not just announcement, this information was also put up on the board right at the entrance so that no one would miss out on reading it. But as soon as it was a particular lady’s turn to get the vaccine, she threw a tantrum as to why the other vaccine was not available and blamed the doctors to waste her time. She did the same thing, clicked the doctor’s picture without their permission and threatened to upload it on social media.

There was a fresh incident that had happened, where an influencer ordered for her food from a food delivery app. But for some reason she got violent and started hitting the delivery boy and in defence he tried to protect himself which in turn hurt the influencer. But she put up a completely false claim video on Social Media accusing the delivery boy and the food delivery app, claiming that the boy hit her.

As we are all aware of the #MeToo movement that had happened worldwide; how many were genuine and how many were not will always remain a mystery. But the problem here is; the genuine victims get hidden behind many fallacious motive people, which in turn lead to the actual victims not getting justice or delayed justice many a times. There have been many men also who uploads a woman’s picture to shame her just because they didn’t get what they wanted. This shakes the entire character of the woman for life.

I have also read about many hotels and restaurants time and again giving statements about being fed up with some influencers asking for free food or free stay in turn of posting a picture on their handles or writing a good review. When the hotels or restaurants deny their offer, these influencers post ugly or negative reviews just because they didn’t get what they wanted.

I am not saying everyone is bad on Social Media. The above are just a few examples which I have come across, and some that I have experienced personally. There are legal remedies also available for such rotten headed people who play the victim card, but are actually the villains. And many even opt to take those remedies that have been badly affected by those false claims.

However, there are many who just suck it up and let go, as they do not have the time and energy to spend behind taking legal actions. In these stressful times, where the world is already going through a lot, along with personal tragedies and grievances, some people leave no stone unturned to increase their popularity on Social Media or get things for free.

These “so called” educated people behave as they maintain all laws & orders, they are the most obedient human beings on Earth and they can get away by threatening to upload pictures on Social Media. Population of such kind of wicket people have increased so much in the past few years, that they have corrupted Social Media and damaged so many people’s lives and images. Social Media has made it easier to misuse the right of freedom of speech and expression by many individuals. There is should be extremely strict curbs and management before this dinosaur turns into a Jurassic Park.

Social Media vs. Reality

The benefit of social media is that it helps us connect with others and share our experiences, but an undeniable negative aspect of social sharing is that we essentially only ever see a highlight of people’s lives, which is generally the opposite of their actual, everyday experience or lives. Social media has a big role in people’s lives as generations tend to live more digitally. However; in society there are many issues and negative outcomes rooted from social media.

It is extremely easy to create an account on any social media platform, which leads to anyone having access to anyone’s content. Anyone can access to what is shared, uploaded, tagged, etc. and viewed in matter of seconds. Social media makes it easy to create a version of you that doesn’t always tell the whole story. So how can you tell the difference between social media and reality?

It’s easy to look at others social media feeds to feel like they are living their best lives. But most of the times, the reality is way too different. Lots of people feel FOMO (fear of missing out) when they see what others are doing online – it can seem like everyone is having more fun than you are. If you’re feeling like this, it’s important to remember that social media doesn’t show the whole story. If social media is getting you down or giving you serious FOMO, consider taking some time out to focus on some of the other things in your life that make you feel happy.

It is also important to remember that some people create social media posts for a job. It’s not uncommon for some social media influencers with big followings to get paid hundreds if not thousands of dollars by companies to pose with particular products. People who run social media profiles as a job have a lot more time to perfect their social media feed. Some social media influencers even use professional photographers to help them create the perfect photo.

Let’s talk about people’s perspective that are influenced by seeing other people’s posts and consider their lives as nothing but a waste. I have a friend like this. She will always call me up to sulk about how miserable she is compared to others. Her statements are, “you know how ordinary she looks, yet she got such a romantic boyfriend, and look at me; my husband is so vanilla” or “how do they get so much money to travel all the time?” or “look at her skin and figure, so perfect” etc. At some point of time, haven’t we all felt this way?

But let me tell you this, time and again I have come across articles which point out the reality behind those perfect pictures. We humans are so desperate to show off our so called perfect lives, that we have even involved our pets into our selfish motives. I had read an article where the pet parent threatened the dog to get a perfect picture. When we see that picture, we automatically assume how cute the dog is and how well trained he must be to pose for a picture like this. But in true honesty, there was fear behind those cute eyes because he was threatened. Besides animals, even small kids are pressured for pictures. Another article pointed out that a mother scolded her kids at the park to get a nice picture. But as always, after seeing the picture, we assume what a great mother she is to have such well mannered children.

Another harrowing impact on common people is what social media has portrayed as perfect bodies and clear glass skin. The impact is so bad, that a normal man is forced to have 6 abs and a normal woman is assumed to have an hour glass body. People are fat shamed, thin shamed, colour shamed, etc. on social media. Even bullied for choosing sexuality or affected by racism. It is getting from bad to worse. Infact, many have even lost their lives for getting that perfect picture.

Besides this, most of the social media platforms have become hook-up platforms. Many people, married, single, divorced, etc. are only trying to connect with others for hook-ups and flings. Cheating has become extremely easy, as more than half of the cheaters use social media platforms to find or contact their lovers. Appropriate relationship boundaries have become blurry. Social media seems to have added fuel to the fire of infidelity. You don’t even have to find somebody who is in your neighborhood. You can flirt and exchange sexual communication with anyone who is willing to do it on planet Earth who is holding a Smartphone.

Life has become easier with the advent of technology and social media. Distance has been reduced because now you can remain in contact with your loved ones every second, but the drawbacks of the increased use of social media aren’t unknown too. Talking about real, offline relationships, the effects of social media is more adverse than good. Hundreds of friends on social media, but how many can you lean on when you need someone.

Please remember, no one has a perfect body or skin. Don’t get under the knife to achieve the impossible. Don’t go broke trying to show others the wealth you don’t have. Don’t threaten your kids or pets to display a fake perfect family. Don’t travel just for the sake of photos. Instead, connect with likeminded people and have a healthy social circle. Promote your business on social media. Stay connected with family and friends who are far away. Use social media to make your life easy and simple. Not to compare yourself with others and make your life miserable.

Social media is not reality. Take control of your life; compare yourself to what you were yesterday than comparing to others on social media. Take everything you see with a pinch of salt. Remember, never believe everything you see, because from far even salt looks like sugar.