Althouse: "Madi Richardson, 23, explains that if she’d been asked what 'living fully' meant a few years ago, she would have said traveling."

September 11, 2019

"Madi Richardson, 23, explains that if she’d been asked what 'living fully' meant a few years ago, she would have said traveling."

"Right after high school, Richardson was following a plethora of people her age on Instagram... 'The photos I saw of them were on vacations.’... Soon, doubt started to creep in. Were her peers living a better, more exciting life than she was? Although she didn’t post those kinds of photos herself, she says: 'There was jealousy and feelings of guilt... It wasn’t until I tried to mimic the trends that I realized: this isn’t who I am.' Dr Erin Vogel, a social psychologist... says: 'Social media seems to define ‘living fully’ as being adventurous, spontaneous and extroverted. For people who are fulfilled by a quieter life, social media seems to tell them that they’re living life the wrong way.'... What makes us happy, at its core, is an existential question, according to Sara Kuburic, a psychotherapist and counselor who works with millennials... 'I find that people increasingly conceptualize living fully as seizing opportunities, taking risks and exploring the unknown... Living fully, in the Instagram age, is often then reduced to doing things that would be worth documenting... We are eager to live our lives fully... Yet the pressure to prove this to our 'friends' is a major reason why we are not.'"

From "What does 'living fully' mean?/Welcome to the age of pseudo-profound nonsense/Inspirational quotes of dubious provenance are just one of the ways in which social media sells a warped vision of 'living fully'" (The Guardian).

28 comments:

Spiros said...: Nobody likes travelling.; 9/11/19, 6:21 PM
Danno said...: To many people, living fully is doing stupid things that might result in winning a Darwin award as a result.; 9/11/19, 6:24 PM
Danno said...: Too many results!; 9/11/19, 6:25 PM
tim in vermont said...: "For people who are fulfilled by a quieter life, social media seems to tell them that they’re living life the wrong way.”

And they care why? I travel sometimes, but I guess I am a "social traveler.” Left to my own desires, I wouldn’t climb on an airplane to go someplace else. I always liked the line from Thoreau, “I have traveled widely in Concord.” But even ol’ (young?) Henry wrote travelogues, I think he may have supported himself that way. The Maine Woods and A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers. So yeah, I travel, but mostly I am migratory. Which is different.; 9/11/19, 6:30 PM
walter said...: See "High Anxiety" clip from yesterday..

"Nobody likes travelling."
?
Some of my favorite life experiences.
I loved it.; 9/11/19, 6:31 PM
rcocean said...: Madi needs a new fake idea of how to live life to its fullest. Drink Schlitz, Girl. Go for the Gusto! Hunt for treasure off the Bahamas. Ski down Mt. Fuji. Sing and dance the night away on a Tahitian beach with all your good looking friends. Race across the Atlantic in your rented yacht.; 9/11/19, 6:34 PM
Birkel said...: Crack MC bait.
Also, Crack MC is correct about the stupidity of New Age shit.; 9/11/19, 6:37 PM
Darrell said...: I travel here to comment.
It is exhausting.; 9/11/19, 6:46 PM
readering said...: Several posts today confirming me in my decision not to join Facebook or Instagram or any similar platform. But I will be flying this weekend to see family and friends. Price one pays for living on the opposite coast from where one grew up.; 9/11/19, 6:58 PM
gilbar said...: For people who are fulfilled by a quieter life, social media seems to tell them that they’re living life the wrong way.

That's because, THEY ARE. The purpose of life... The ONLY PURPOSE of life;
Is to find a ridge trail, with VERY long sides; and the Go Pro yourself, RUNNING AS FAST AS YOU CAN along the ridge... With Each Footstep being INCHES away from your demise.
Unless you are RISKING YOUR LIFE.... ON CAMERA... YOU ARE NOT LIVING YOU Are NOT ALIVE
ONLY constantly challenging death, ON CAMERA .... THIS IS WHAT LIFE IS ABOUT

YOU'RE NOT KILLING YOURSELF, YOU'RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH; 9/11/19, 7:05 PM
readering said...: Per news report:

A hiker climbing Yosemite National Park's famous Half Dome died after suffering a 500-foot fall last Thursday. Danielle Burnett, 29, was visiting the park from Arizona when the accident occurred. Burnett, who had previously posted multiple social media photos of herself hiking, was described by her sister on Facebook as having died while "doing something she loved so much.; 9/11/19, 7:25 PM
gilbar said...: described by her sister on Facebook as having died while "doing something she loved so much

See? Danielle knows how to Live! SHE Knows what living is about; it's about Dying, doing something pointless and stupid. Only by dying can you know what it's like to be alive!!!; 9/11/19, 7:28 PM
h said...: When I got my first job in the mid 1970s, it was a "good job" in the sense that it was secure with clear path to promotion. But it was hopelessly dull. I went to that job every day, and through years got promoted, and it got a little better, but still very dull. And ultimately I quit and got a graduate degree, which meant that my job was much less dull (or if it was dull it was my own fault). But the process of getting a graduate degree was incredibly hard. My impression of people in their early 20s today is that they are unwilling to accept jobs that are hopelessly dull, and are unwilling to engage in a process that is incredibly hard. They want a job that helps solve world poverty, and they want to fly business class and stay in 4-star hotels in those impoverished countries. When that doesn't happen they blame "the system".; 9/11/19, 8:26 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: "For people who are fulfilled by a quieter life, social media seems to tell them that they’re living life the wrong way.”

And they care why?

That reminds me of the week I was on Twitter. One of my days off I decided to tweet my day. My how boring I am. But I thoroughly enjoyed my day. That's when I got off social media.; 9/11/19, 8:38 PM
Paddy O said...: "Now I am able to appreciate that everything has a definite purpose, whether I am momentarily pleased the instant it is thrown at me or not. Looking back over my life, I wanted so many things, and I struggled so hard, always in spurts, to achieve my so-called desires, which weren't what I wanted at all."

~Greg "Pappy" Boyington

The struggle isn't new.; 9/11/19, 8:47 PM
Roughcoat said...: I'm liking Erin Vogel's views on this subject. Very much so.; 9/11/19, 8:52 PM
Roughcoat said...: "Now I am able to appreciate that everything has a definite purpose, whether I am momentarily pleased the instant it is thrown at me or not. Looking back over my life, I wanted so many things, and I struggled so hard, always in spurts, to achieve my so-called desires, which weren't what I wanted at all."

~Greg "Pappy" Boyington

P.S. But I did get to kill a lot of Japs. So there's that.; 9/11/19, 8:57 PM
Gospace said...: Living fully, IMHO, is finding a marital partner of the opposite sex (there are only two of them), having children, this successfully continuing the human race, and raising those children to become successful adults themselves and so the same thing.

I followed the gossip columns in NYC newspapers growing up, and after a while the people featured were cautionary tales, not people who should be mimicked.; 9/11/19, 9:18 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: "For people who are fulfilled by a quieter life, social media seems to tell them that they’re living life the wrong way.”

How weak, stupid, lame, and/or shallow are you that social media tells you anything?; 9/11/19, 9:53 PM
Mark said...: unwilling to accept jobs that are hopelessly dull

The thing about a job -- any job -- is that in the final analysis, it is a job. Even when doing things you like, it is a job. You are doing it not for fun, but because it's your job to do it. So burden and tedium invariably creep into any job, particularly when you are not your own boss.; 9/11/19, 9:56 PM
Mark said...: It's good that people are now starting to recognize the existential crisis our society and culture are in. Too bad they refuse to accept the answer when it is presented to them, preferring angst and despair instead.; 9/11/19, 9:59 PM
JML said...: Don't want your daughter to travel to Europe? Watch 'Taken' with her, and remind her You DON'T have a very special set of skills.; 9/11/19, 11:39 PM
LordSomber said...: Spend some time sunbathing off the southern coast of St. Bart's with spider monkeys for a couple weeks, tripping on acid. It'll change your whole perspective on shit.; 9/12/19, 1:23 AM
Jeff said...: The thing about a job -- any job -- is that in the final analysis, it is a job. Even when doing things you like, it is a job. You are doing it not for fun, but because it's your job to do it.
I thought I liked my job and the people I worked with. But when I retired, I found I didn't miss it at all. Although the horrible commute probably accounts for some of that.; 9/12/19, 7:31 AM
Le Stain du Poop said...: Well, if you have any kind of a brain you are not nor have you ever been on social media--so this really shouldn't be an issue for you.....; 9/12/19, 9:35 AM
Narr said...: I keep hearing about social media, but it sounds stupid to me.

Narr
Because it is!; 9/12/19, 10:00 AM
Narr said...: My older bro wasn't much of a traveler--more a wanderer and occasional guest of the state--but he was fully dedicated to doing what he loved. And finally he succeeded!

Narr
Polypharmacy, same as Elvis! Cool.; 9/12/19, 10:04 AM
Bilwick said...: As a liberty addict "living fully" entails living freely. The Democratic Presidential Clown Car, among liberty-phobic State-shtuppers, just wouldn't get it.; 9/12/19, 2:14 PM