The Internet’s Ever-Growing Obsession With Romanticized Productivity
Kat Anderson
It’s pretty incredulous to think that the first seeds of insecurity sowed itself within me under the guise of beautiful lettering and aesthetically pleasing school notes posted online, at merely fifteen years old. I’m seventeen now, living in the midst of the pandemic, and these types of content have grown even more rampantly all over social media - especially with the transition to remote online learning - eventually becoming an Internet phenomenon that has shaped a new paradigm for productivity among young adults - they call it: studyblrs.
Studyblr is a term derived from the words ‘study’ and ‘Tumblr’, meant for a community of young academic pursuers posting blog content such as study tips and motivational quotes. At face value, this seems like a perfect academic haven - you’ve got a friendly and encouraging community, informative tips for studying and a stellarly curated timeline of elegantly written notes, extensive stationery and sleek Macbooks.
As a fifteen-year-old teen trying to navigate her way through life while desperately looking for validation and a way to boost her already decent grades at the time, it was natural for me to immediately be awash with excitement upon the discovery of such accounts. It was not long after I tried immersing myself in their craze for productivity that I realized that I have only manifested further anxiety and stress into my life. But what is it about these studyblrs that can be so appalling?
Gaining traction in mid-2014, the nascence of the study community accouched a new breed of workaholics, birthing a new branch of obsessive work culture that I’d like to call romanticized productivity. In the face of toxic capitalism, it has become a competition for people to brag about how much they’re working, how packed their schedules are, and how they’re so physically and mentally exhausted. And when the glamorization of work, or studying, in this case, is added to the mix, the two make a hell of a destructive combo - a perfect recipe for the ruination of one’s mental health.
Self-help infographics, studyblr posts, or ‘get productive day with me’ videos on platforms such as YouTube or Tumblr are all over the Internet, building a strong consumer base of young adults determined to improve their work ethic and strive to be better versions of themselves. While this surge of motivational content can serve as a great source of motivation, the side effects of consuming too much of this subject matter - especially for young, impressionable teens, have yet to be explored. Reading through study tips or productivity resources organized in such a neat and artistic manner can surely be a feast for your eyes, but it doesn’t always equate to higher productivity and studying on your end. Lee Humphreys, an associate new media professor at Cornell coined a term that describes this circumstance as “narcotizing dysfunction”, where “people mistake knowing about something or reading about something or watching about something for doing and engaging in the activity itself.” She also adds, “Whether knowing a lot about studying and developing positive feelings towards studying actually causes bloggers to study more, is “empirically questionable.”
When asked for their take on the significance of productivity, many of my fellow teens believed that their environment has forced them to be productive. Some claimed it was the dopamine rush they get after they’ve completed their to-do lists; some commented on how their school system wires them to feel that way; but most attributed it as a product of capitalism, which rewards productivity and makes those who don’t work hard enough feel worthless.
For too long, impediments to productivity have always been considered a ‘you’ problem: your poor time management and organization, your choice to procrastinate, your mindset. Sometimes, they can be true. But more often than not, the system that we were born in is at fault here for making us believe that our self-worth should be completely based off of the volume of output that we make. If anything, capitalism has only exposed the dark side of workaholism.
While we can be actively engaged in our work and experience positive feelings from it, the main goal of society as a whole would be survival or in this case, obtaining financial gain for survival. Eternal fulfillment obtained from work is a dubious concept. As long as we are programmed for survival, or, the quest for money, we are already on our way to churn the wheel of capitalism further, even at the expense of people’s physical wellbeing or mental health.
On a personal level, the consumption of content revolving around studying or productivity, triggers my feelings of inadequacy. As someone who also values visual stimuli, I felt like my notes had to pertain to some unattainably perfect standard, an aesthetic layout with clear and concise flow of information. It even stretched as far as to me developing an elitist mindset. I live in Indonesia where the concept of hustle culture is considered quite foreign, where procrastination or laziness are often normalized by the youth especially on social media, evident from widely-used terms such as ‘anak rebahan’ which trended on Twitter when young Indonesians posted tweets classifying themselves as ‘lazy’ in a humorly way, or the work culture of ‘kerja sama’, a common practice during exams where students pass their notes/answers to each other.
As someone with the privilege of attending a private school that recognizes the International Baccalaureate system, for years, I have been exposed to Western work culture where hustling is the norm. Juggling a never-ending pile of assignments and essays from the IB, a job as a online content creator and some remnants of a social life, I couldn’t help but compare my situation to my Indonesian counterparts who are studying the national curriculum. When juxtaposing Indonesian work culture and western hustle culture, it’s easy to fall into the trap of developing a superiority complex of some sorts - I fell into the trap of assuming that national curriculum students must have had it a lot easier, without once having to experience the curriculum in its entirety. Thankfully, I soon realized that it was a hasty and inaccurate generalization; talking to my Indonesian friends from different academic and cultural backgrounds helped me break free from my overweening ways of thinking. The truth is, despite its numerous flaws, the Indonesian educational system got at least one thing right: students are not slaves to their work.
The biggest epiphany I’ve experienced from excessively devouring study content at an early age and eventually halting its consumption altogether is that we shouldn’t treat ourselves as machines that constantly churn out endless amounts of output in pristine quality. We forget that seemingly perfect photographs of beautifully handwritten notes by studyblrs don’t reveal the nitty-gritty details of their studying process: the long hours of confusion, mental breakdowns and the countless notes that were scrapped because they were considered defective, or not up to par with their usual aesthetic.
This is not to say that studyblrs should start posting about their mental breakdowns, though. Studyblrs are definitely not all bad - they're generally a positive, thriving community that promotes hard work and perseverance in academics. Plus, studyblrs actually make studying look a lot less threatening. Looking at neatly placed stationeries things can also be pleasurable to some, myself included. I even know some friends who, courtesy of the Internet phenomenon, have changed their approach in doing school assignments, seeing it as less of a chore. Productivity slumps and burnouts are bound to happen, and even if it wasn’t the case with me, being a part of these communities could help uplift and encourage people in order to eliminate these obstructions. At times, support might be all we need in terms of overcoming barriers in learning, and especially so during the pandemic.
The desire to reinvent oneself in terms of work ethic, however, shouldn’t solely translate to romanticizing productivity in order to get things done. Productivity is an unreliably subjective metric especially when used in comparison to someone else’s. Often, we get so caught up in investing our energy to work we forget to give ourselves the break we need. If there’s anything the pandemic has taught me, it surely has emphasized the importance to slow down in an ever-so-bustling work life. I think a great first step for change is by starting to shift our mindsets to embrace our shortcomings as a part of our learning process. It’s also important to acknowledge that studyblr accounts don’t have to be your perfect archetype of productivity. While thousands of different shades of Zebra mildliners and Muji spiral notebooks can push you to study, the interminably enjoyable idea of productivity that these accounts may perpetuate shouldn’t distract you from getting the rest you deserve. Progress and productivity is not linear: humans have limitations and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to tackling self-improvement.