Taking time for yourself, slowing down and savouring the moment: what if the key to happiness was to do nothing? While hyper-productivity dominates our daily lives, a new trend is emerging to rehabilitate rest and letting go. It’s called laziness culture.
Long seen as a flaw, laziness is now emerging as a way of life. Laziness culture deconstructs the idea that being overworked is a sign of success. Inspired by slow living and new aspirations for well-being, this trend claims a right to rest, far from the dictates of hustle culture.
A counter-culture to hyper-productivity
In a world where efficiency and profitability have become the dominant values, laziness culture is like a revolution. After years of being told to do more and more, new generations are taking a step back. Burn-out has become a common ailment, and chronic fatigue is affecting more and more workers and students. Hence the need to slow down.
This phenomenon is reflected in concepts that are already popular, such as quiet quitting – which involves working without excessive emotional investment – or soft life, an approach that favours simplicity and serenity in everyday life. But laziness culture goes further, normalising guilt-free doing without, by emphasising the importance of emptiness in a day-to-day life saturated with information and social expectations.
Social networks, the driving force behind the movement
Paradoxically, it is on social networks – often accused of fuelling the performance injunction – that laziness culture is gaining momentum. On TikTok, the hashtags #lazygirl and #lazinessculture are racking up millions of views, driven by female influencers demanding the right to relax. With videos of lazy routines, days spent under a blanket and odes to doing nothing, this content advocates a benevolent approach to rest.
Figures such as the American author Jenny Odell, with her book ‘How to Do Nothing’, have also helped to legitimise this approach. Her message? In a world saturated with stimuli and obligations, refusing to be productive is an act of resistance.
A luxury reserved for some?
While laziness culture may seem seductive, it also raises a question of privilege. Not everyone can afford to slow down at their own pace. Behind this trend often lies a more nuanced reality: that of an elite that has the means to choose its own schedule.
However, the demand for the right to be lazy is also part of a wider fight for a better quality of life. Companies are beginning to review their models by introducing four-day weeks, and teleworking is enabling some people to rebalance their daily lives. The normalisation of rest could pave the way for a reinvention of work and well-being.
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