Everyday We're Hustling
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BYOB: Be Your Own Boss
Working five to nine
You've got passion and a vision
Cuz it's hustlin' time
A whole new way to make a livin'
Gonna change your life
Do something that gives it meaning
With a website that is worthy of your dreaming
In my world, bank holidays don’t exist; these days, I am no longer tied to a calendar, waiting desperately for the next three-day weekend. Oftentimes, I don’t even know what day it is--or that it's a holiday. I guess you could say that this is because my entire life has lost structure, what with a small child who relies on me to survive and a pandemic that has upended most of my routines. Maybe the same is true for many of you, and maybe three-day weekends didn’t mean much before the pandemic because you’re a freelancer, hustling to get by.
Speaking of which, I can’t stop thinking about the Squarespace ad that ran during the Super Bowl. It featured a Dolly Parton’s song, “9 to 5,” but re-vamped with a gig economy spin: 5 to 9—as in, the work you do from 5 pm to 9 am the next day. Hustlin’ time, as Dolly calls it, a whole new way to make a livin’. The commercial is an eye-catching and colorfully choreographed musical, directed by the same guy who made La La Land, but I found the message problematic. It’s the underlying capitalistic principle that I so often lament in this newsletter—everything you love can and should be monetized. Thanks to the internet, hobbies can become side hustles and income streams.
And don’t get me wrong, I knock it but I’ve fallen for it hook, line and sinker. (Hence the ask for monetary donations at the end of this newsletter. Forgive me. But I somehow felt silently pressured into doing this since every single newsletter I read these days is asking subscribers to pay.)
It’s the modern world we’re living in—be your own boss (and HR manager, billing department, communications director, etc) doing what you love! At one point, Parton sings “You keep working, working, working,” and well, ain’t that the truth! And if you’re not “working, working, working,” you’re less than.
My friend and fellow writer, Jay, and I talk about this phenomenon often. She sent me this quote recently from Anne Helen Petersen’s book, Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation.
“Part of our problem is that we work more. But the other problem is that the hours when we’re not technically working never feel free from optimization—either of the body, the mind, or one’s social status. The word leisure comes from the Latin licere, variously translated as ‘to be permitted’ or ‘to be free.’ Leisure, then, is time you are allowed to do what you’d like, free from the compunction to generate value. When all hours can be theoretically converted to more work, the hours when you’re not working feel like a lost opportunity, or just an abject failure.”
Petersen goes on:
“The internet isn’t the root cause of our burnout. But it’s promise to ‘make our lives easier’ is a profoundly broken one, responsible for the illusion that ‘doing it all’ isn’t just possible, but mandatory. When we fail to do so, we don’t blame the broken tools. We blame ourselves. Deep down, millennials know the primary exacerbator of burnout isn’t email, or Instagram, or a constant stream of news alerts. It’s the continuous failure to reach the impossible expectations we’ve set for ourselves.”
Our devices are supposed to make our lives easier, and yet, what do they make easier, exactly? They make it easier to work. I think about this when my husband walks through the door after work, deeply engaged in a work call on his cell phone. (Thankfully, he’s no longer working from our living room. He’s going into the office, which in a sense helps to keep work and home life separate, but are they ever really?) I thought about it this weekend when a ton of tourists descended on our beaches for the long weekend. As my son played in the sand, I people-watched and wondered why so many of these tourists had traveled so far to sit on this beach, their attention unrelentingly focused on the phone in their hand.
From the Audience: Digital Life Hacks
This one's from me. Last week, I saw on Facebook that a good friend's brother announced that his wife was pregnant with their first child. Even though we aren't in touch very often, he feels a bit like a little brother to me, so I texted him a quick message of congratulations. His response: "Thanks so much for texting instead of just 'liking' the post on Facebook!"
This week, give someone a call instead of posting a cursory "Happy Birthday" on their page (or HBD), or text someone one-on-one in response to an article they shared on social media. Try to personalize your relationships in the digital world by bringing them into the real world--and tell me how it goes! (Just hit REPLY to this email; I love hearing from readers.)
Digital Life Around the Web
Very scary Fresh Air episode about U.S. vulnerability to cyber attacks.
This American Life show about a father trying to scrub his son's name off the internet. (Yep, I'm still listening to a ton of podcasts...)
Profiles of people who have quit social media--and found happiness on their other side.
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