I’m 19, I pay my bills on time, go to school, keep my space clean, eat (mostly) healthy, and don’t go out partying or drinking. From the outside, I guess I’m “doing well.” But lately, I’ve been feeling this weird emptiness—like I’m stuck on autopilot, doing everything I’m supposed to do, but not really living.

I scroll through social media and see people my age traveling, making mistakes, falling in love, messing up, and somehow I feel like I’m behind... even though I’m checking all the boxes.

I guess I’m just wondering if anyone else feels this way too. Like, you’re being responsible, but at what cost? Does it get better? Or are we all just figuring it out as we go?

I get it, we all want to succeed, achieve our dreams, and live a life that feels fulfilling. But can we please stop acting like working 80-hour weeks and sacrificing our mental health is the only way to "win" at life?

We're constantly told to "grind" and "hustle" like there's no tomorrow, but what about rest? What about mental peace? Why is taking care of your mental health considered lazy? It's like we're so obsessed with success that we forget we’re human, not machines.

Success is not the same as exhaustion. I’m all for being driven, but we need balance. Hustling nonstop doesn’t make you stronger, it just burns you out. Let’s normalize taking breaks, saying no to overwork, and valuing well-being over toxic productivity. 😌💗

Just a thought—what do you guys think?

Is this normal?

I just went out to one of the most popular clubs in phoenix AZ and it was as dead as roadkill.

I was there for two hours. There were about 300 people and i did not see one guy n girl dancing with each other or hooking up. Everyone was standing awkwardly looking at their phones or staring at other people doing the same thing.

When I was in freaking middle school the “club” was way more alive. Dancing, talking, hooking up, just living in the moment and enjoying ourselves. Mind you, we were teens and not intoxicated.

I haven’t been to a club in years but is this normal now?

It was truly mind blowing.

Hello good evening, I come to express my total indignation, about living in Brazil or better yet, here, a few days ago, I discovered in the worst way that our money is worth shit and it's going to get worse. Before you could build a house even if you were from the lower middle class, nowadays the rent is 500 reais on top of the minimum wage and so rubbish that it's hard to survive, I can't even imagine who earns less than that, anyway, the economy is breaking a lot of taxes, a lot of perks for politicians in general, pt or PL or other parties who won't lose out and we are good citizens who pay taxes, a country full of corruption, where you can't go around the corner and maybe you won't come back, why? killed by the "victims of society" Brazil is a lawless land, I have a dream of leaving here and going to live somewhere in Russia or Europe in the United States, leaving here to try another life, but what makes it impossible for me is the money I earn is just enough for me to survive, and nothing else, I'm not even going to talk about the Brazilian police because it makes me angry... Anyway, that was just a rant about living in a shitty country like this.

I’m not even necessarily talking about how some people are bad at their jobs, though that is part of it.

The biggest wake up call is the social landscape of work. I’m in my mid 20s and most of my coworkers are at least 10 years older than me. Most of the people on my team are double my age. I know it’s normal human behavior to have cliques and all that, but I for some reason expected adult cliques to be less gossipy and cringe than high school ones. The perk of being new to the company (let alone the workforce) and being on relatively okay terms with everyone is that I hear most of the gossip. It’s also kind of fun to be able to start figuring out who is in what clique and who is beefing with who.

In my current job, the cliques are pretty on par with high school. I keep to myself generally, but am friendly when I do occasionally interact with them. As a result, I hear a lot of gossip about the beef in the office. After a couple of months, I think I figured out the cliques in the office. I consider this good too because my team at my previous employer was worse where I was bullied by someone triple my age. No one could do anything because the bully was good friends with the manager.

BRO READ THIS FULLY. This will break your addiction if you actually take it seriously.

Let me hit you with a hard truth:

Every time you check your phone when you’re supposed to be reading, working, creating… You’re not taking a break. You’re not chilling. You’re being used. You're a lab rat pressing a dopamine button, waiting for a crumb of satisfaction.

Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, they are not free apps. You are the product. Your attention is the currency. And every time you scroll, you are paying with your future. You don’t scroll because you want to. You scroll because they designed your brain to need it.

These apps are coded by people who know exactly how to hijack your psychology, what sound, what color, what timing makes you crave another hit. They’ve studied you. They know how to keep you addicted better than you know how to focus. They’ve turned your mind into a playground they own. They know your brain better than you do.

You're not addicted to your phone, you've become a puppet to an invisible hand that profits every time you fail.

This isn’t entertainment. It’s enslavement. And the most terrifying part?

While you're watching reels… your real life is slipping through your fingers. Every second you spend consuming someone else’s highlight reel, is a second stolen from your own.

You know what’s even more disturbing?

While you’re busy scrolling, your potential self is dying in silence. The one who could’ve built something, learned something, become someone powerful, that version of you is being starved while you're being spoon-fed digital junk.

And you don't even realize it, until one day, you look back and realize you became nothing but a watcher. A ghost in your own life.

Let that sink in.

Here are 5 steps to break out from this mess. Not with weak tips. But with a mental revolution.

1. The 5-Second Mirror Test Before opening any app, ask yourself: “Is this making me the person I want to become?” Then wait five seconds. If your answer is no, but you still open the app—you’ve just chosen to betray yourself. Feel that.

2. Plan Tomorrow—Today Every night, before bed, grab a pen and plan your next day hour by hour. Not in your head. On paper. Write everything. Your work. Your rest. Even your scroll time. Yes, schedule it.

Because when you choose to scroll, it's control. When you drift into scrolling, it’s addiction. And here's the twist: Add a penalty for every rule you break. Didn’t follow your schedule? Pay a fine. Do push-ups. Miss a meal. Tell someone what you did. Feel the burn of failure. No punishment, no progress.

1. Rewire Your Reward System You crave dopamine, right? Fine. But now, you only earn dopamine through discipline.

No phone in the morning until you’ve done something real. Earn your entertainment. Get addicted to progress, not passivity. Reprogram your brain so success feels better than scrolling.

1. Create Your Replacement Universe Don’t just cut out social media. Build a new world to live in.

Books that bend your mind. Voicenotes with deep friends. Walks where you actually notice the sky. Silence, boredom, peace, get addicted to those.

You don't need more noise. You need depth.

1. Write Your Obituary. Right Now. Yes. Literally. If you died today, what would it say?

“He watched a lot of memes.”

“He scrolled past every goal he once dreamed of.”

“He had potential… but he just kept saying ‘after one more video."

Bro. Don’t let that be you. Don’t die a quiet death in a comment section.

You were not born to be an audience member. You were born to build, to feel deeply, to create something real. You were not born to consume life through a screen… while your own life slips away unnoticed.

Nah, bro. That’s not you.

You are not put on this Earth to scroll away your existence. You are not born to consume other people’s lives while yours rots in the background.

If you don’t take control of your attention… someone else will. And every scroll, every distraction, every wasted second, will stack up. Until one day, you look in the mirror… and don’t recognize the person staring back. Because the person you could’ve been Is already dead.

That’s the real cost of social media. Not wasted time. But a wasted self.

Now... Are you ready to take your mind back? Or are you just going to scroll past this too?

Your move.

(Feel free to check out my YouTube channel for more self help and educational themes. I hope you will be benefited. Link in bio)

I always had friend groups and girl groups in primary, then highschool, then university. I always kept those friendships alive and I still do, but lot of those people aren’t really close to each other anymore, so I kinda have 1 on 1 friendships more than group ones. But it sucks sometimes. Because- I am in otherwise another friendgroup with my husband and his friends and their wives- who are childhood friends. I am never on the same wavelength with them. They have their own group with other girls. My best friend from university moved abroad and though we talk almost every day it’s not the same. I have good girl friends from various life stages, but not one group that I can go to brunch with, trips, shopping, share the life drama, just silly laugh, talk bullshit and I really miss it. Or even do fun stuff or hiking or sports.

But you can’t force finding it.

I moved to the city I live in for university and so my childhood friends don’t live here and people who live here have lived here forever and their lives didn’t have to be split in two. Nobody’s fault really, I just wonder if I am ever gonna meet new people.

One thing I've noticed in my life is that after people have kids, nobody cares about anything or anyone anymore with the exception of their own kids - which does makes sense in a way.

I've read somewhere that our societies are work-based. There is a lot of thought that if someone is keeping you behind, lose them. You tend to judge people on their merit, and if they cannot keep up, it's "all-for-yourself" mentality. Every time we socialize, we need to have "news" to share, otherwise....why bother? 

As somebody who actually loves having people around me, it feels like society forces me to concentrate on my career and a small circle because everybody else does too.

I have so many problems in my life right now, but I can’t help but love life. Like, we’re all just here together on this planet—grumpy, hippie, angry, schizophrenic, bipolar, depressed, happy, weirdos. The list goes on and on. We’ve built all these amazing things for our own little human entertainment. We have doctors, scientists, fast food workers, servers, garbage collectors, celebrities—like, what’s even happening here? I’m drowning in debt, but honestly, I don’t really care. I might never pay it off; I’ll just pass away and let it stay on this earth. It doesn’t even register in my mind. If I can pay it, I will, but if not—oh well. Billions of people die with debt, and I bet they’re not in their graves thinking, “Ugh, I still owe money.” I’m not on drugs, I swear, but I just had this moment of realization. This world is so beautiful. We stress so much about everyday life, and in the end, all that stuff—the money we saved, the things we stressed about, the tears we cried—will stay here on earth. We can blame the government (which, yeah, is partly their fault), but what does that do? Just makes us resent our lives. There’s beauty and meaning to be found in everything! Find yours—I think I’ve found mine 🌟

I always wanted to grow up. But wasn't really prepared for how exhausting adult life is. You're working full-time, trying to stay in shape, keeping up with bills, groceries, texts, emails... and somehow still feeling like you're not doing enough. You clean your room but the laundry's still sitting. You reply to one message but forget five others. And let’s not even talk about friendships everyone's so busy hustling, you slowly drift apart without even meaning to. You try to rest, but feel guilty for not being productive. Try to hustle, and feel like you're losing yourself. It’s like you’re always “catching up” but never actually caught up. Does anyone else feel this way, or is it just me?