Hyper-Fatigue, Nostalgia and GLPR
When I decided I was ready to write another Note, it was my intention to keep it “short and sweet” but as soon as I wrote the title, I knew it was going to be anything but brief!
So grab your beverage of choice and get ready to take a whistle-stop tour through my mind over the past few months.
Hyper-Fatigue
I sleep well and generally sleep deeply unless something is really bothering me. So it was in the early hours of another sleepless night in September that I came across the term “hyper-fatigue”.
I knew that what I was feeling was part grief but I was also aware that there was more to it. I had been feeling increasingly overstimulated and the urge to withdraw entirely from society was growing daily. Everything about life felt exhausting. And it was becoming increasingly difficult to fall and stay asleep each night.
So rather than continue tossing and turning, I did the obvious thing: I grabbed my phone and opened Google.
First I typed “connection fatigue” but the results didn’t relate to what I was experiencing. Next, I tried “social connection fatigue” but the search results were mainly about reconnecting in person after the Covid lockdowns. Again, not what I was experiencing.
Then, I typed in “social fatigue 2023” and one of the first articles in the search results was titled “2023 is the year of hyper fatigue” with the headline “Is everyone you know exhausted? This is why”.
In the article, it said:
A new global market trends report from research company, Mintel, claims hyper-fatigue will be one of the biggest consumer trends of the year, saying that people are experiencing the after-effects of "uncertainty, stress, financial issues, and major life shifts".
After reading the article (and several others afterwards), I felt seen. Things made more sense. But I also felt sad and angry. Like seriously, how can this be the reality of life?!
“one of the biggest consumer trends of the year” - Seriously, WTAF?!
I spent the next few days journaling a lot.
I couldn’t work out how I had such a full life in my twenties and thirties rarely feeling exhausted. I was in full-time employment and commuting, volunteering, studying, working out, clubbing, socialising, having people over, freelancing, blogging, cooking, baking, being creative, babysitting, reading, travelling and so much more.
Now, most days, I barely have the energy to toast bread.
The easy answer is “old age”. The older you get, the less energy you have. But instinctively I know this is BS. There are people of all ages doing amazing things and living full lives.
Just today I saw a news segment about a man aged 102 who became a Guinness Book of Records holder for the oldest person to abseil down the side of a building!
Also, through talking to other people, reading Substack emails and learning about the trend that is hyper-fatigue, it’s clear that people of all ages are feeling this way.
So what is going on?
Nostalgia
In my journal, I asked myself what is different now compared to my twenties and thirties, other than my age.
Here’s a snippet of what I wrote:
I remember a time when shops were closed on Sunday so it really was a day of rest. When there were way less programmes and films to watch but much better quality so it was easy to find something really good to watch and you didn’t spend hours scrolling, yet again.
Everything feels infinite now, like there’s no end to anything and I’m sure it’s a lot to do with the amount of scrolling we do in every aspect of our lives as well as the 24/7 availability of almost everything.
“Back in the day” there was less - of everything! Which meant there was more space in my life.
Don’t get me wrong the 00s were far from perfect and there is so much about technology and the conveniences of life in London in 2023 that I love but the cost of those conveniences is becoming more apparent and I find myself desperate for another way to exist as a human in today’s society.
GLPR aka General Life Protection Regulation
I have been actively disengaged from social media (Instagram) since March this year. I haven’t deactivated my @lljournaling account as I want to keep the prompts available, but I have not been using the platform.
So I couldn’t work out why, months later, I was still experiencing the feelings of being overwhelmed that scrolling on Instagram gave me.
Then it dawned on me, I am still scrolling. My life is still overflowing with information and I am still constantly connected.
Add to that, a platform (Substack) I moved to that initially gave me a feeling of nostalgia, that felt like the “good old days” of blogging and blog binge-reading on Feedly, was starting to feel a lot like yet another social media platform…
I can now see very clearly how over the past several years, in very subtle ways I’ve been opted into ways of being without my explicit consent.
Instagram, Whatsapp and even Substack today are not what they were when I signed up for them. They have evolved in ways that appeared to enhance my life while also making my life smaller, suffocating and less fulfilling.
Not only is my attention being mined, manipulated and stolen, I’m having the life sucked out of me!
So I’m opting out, in small ways, wherever I can.
I’m putting my phone down more and actively monitoring my usage.
According to research from GWI, the “typical” global internet user now spends almost 7 hours per day – 6 hours and 58 minutes to be precise – using the internet across all devices.
No wonder so many of us are feeling exhausted and like we never have enough time!
I’m taking longer to respond to messages and thinking twice before sending messages.
I’ve decluttered my Spotify Podcasts, YouTube and Substack subscriptions.
I’m resting. I’m journaling. I’m reading. I’m spending hours colouring in.
I’m choosing the analogue option as often as possible.
These things have been helping, but I have a feeling that finding a balance between analogue and digital, online and offline, convenience and patience is going to be an ongoing journey…
Journaling Prompts
Here are your journaling prompts, inspired by the thoughts I’ve shared in this Note.
I hope you find them insightful and enjoy exploring them:
What do you miss about your “younger” days?
What are you feeling nostalgic about?
What offline interests and activities do you miss?
What is the time you spend online/on your phone costing you?
If you had “office hours” for using your phone / being online / being available, what days and times would you choose and why?
If the internet had “office hours” and was only available for a limited number of hours each day, what would be your online priorities and how would you spend the rest of the time?
What do you want to opt out of?
Where in your life do your boundaries need reassessing?
Where in your life and in what ways does technology add genuine value to your daily life?
Where in your life have you become too dependent on technology?
Journaling Playlist
To be honest, I’ve been listening to the same playlists on repeat over the past few months, so I’ll share two of them again here:
Sanctuary Online Journaling Playlist
FYI: Journaling Self-Care
NEWS: I’ve added a random journaling prompt generator to the LL Journaling website.
It’s on the homepage. So although I’m no longer actively sharing journaling prompts on Instagram, if you’re ever looking for inspiration, head over to the website.
It currently has over 400 prompts so as long as the tech works as it should, hopefully, you’ll always get a different prompt.
And that’s a wrap!
If you’ve read this far, thank you so much for still being here, it was a long one but it has been a while.
Until next time, keep feeling, healing and dreaming through journaling. ✨️
~ Leanne
P.S. Feel free to share your thoughts about this edition of Notes on Journaling in the comments.