By: Serena Edwards
When Kim Kardashian said “nobody wants to work these days”, she wasn’t lying. As we come to the end of the year, the lack of creative passion and drive has come to the forefront. Bare-minimum work has become the standard because of societal pressures.
To put it quite frankly, there is an ongoing laziness epidemic. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “laziness is not liking to work hard or to be active”. Nobody wants to go above and beyond anymore if they aren’t able to reach the results quickly.
Everyone wants positive end results but doesn’t want to put in the work to receive the satisfaction. Instant gratification has become the new trend, with everyone feeling entitled to rewards that they didn’t work for. Nobody has been able to climb to the top easily unless they are a “nepo baby,”(someone who is the child of someone successful or of stature), and even then, nepo babies have the pressure of meeting the standards of their lineage. The question stands: what will people do to get to the finish line without fully running the race?
When foreign exchange trading was at its peak in the 2010s, social media platforms were flooded with people reaching out to you, trying to get you in on their Forex trading. However, the satisfaction of Forex trading didn’t last long, as these trading groups dwindled just as fast as they built up; a perfect example of people doing anything except putting in hard work to receive high-quality results.
There’s no denying the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within the last three years. AI has been embedded into every social media platform, as well as our search engines. AI usage has made it easier for people to stop caring. Now that there is a bot that makes everything for you in the click of a button, the genuine process of creativity has died. Wanna-be artists are taking advantage of AI and using prompts, thinking that makes them an artist. Rappers are no longer commissioning artists for their album cover, but settling for the generic ChatGPT logo look. Instead of checking the accuracy of information and being the “human in the loop”, there is a lack of desire to go out of your way to make sure what is shown is the best.
In a study from Stanford Scale Initiative, “results suggest that AI tools may encourage students to become ‘lazy thinkers’, potentially reducing their cognitive engagement when relying heavily on tools like ChatGPT.”
But ultimately, it goes into a bigger discussion of overstimulation; there is a reason why people can’t work.
This isn’t about periods of burnout but more so a lack of will to strive towards the ultimate goal. Overworking to the point of burnout doesn’t help either, and it is important to get rid of the stigma of rest as laziness. This cycle will ultimately lead to creative burnout and make the quality of your content dull.
What I have learned is that there is a happy medium that supports your body and helps you reach your full potential.
Through a societal lens, it feels like this is how we were designed: to only have enough to give for the nine-to-five. After pushing 40 hours a week, sometimes all you can give is rest and eating. But what if it’s because we are losing the motivation to keep pushing and end up in survival mode?
Passion and motivation are similar yet so different.
According to Merriam-Webster, passion is “a strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.” Whereas motivation is “the condition of being eager to act or work.” When we think of these words, we place them in the workplace; however, what if we place these words into outside environments?
Create hobbies and make things outside of your workplace, even if you can only give five minutes. These things will ultimately be what you look forward to and end up being something that you want to get better at. Pursuing your passions on a daily basis encourages you into a space without the conforming pressures of society weighing on you.
So yes, there are plenty of reasons for “laziness,” but being spoon-fed success is not the alternative. The best success is the one you persevere and work as hard as you can for; as they say, quality over quantity.