HUSTLE CULTURE AND ITS EFFECT ON HAPPINESS

ByRathishaa

Hustle culture is a lifestyle which has emerged due to the increasing influence of social media. It is a lifestyle in which your career becomes an overly integral part of your life and it is believed that the only way to achieve success is to work, thereby sacrificing sleep and happiness. Needless to say, there are many faults with this mentality. Social media doesn’t help fix this as it puts forth quotes like ‘hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle’, ‘I’ve got a dream worth more than my sleep’, and ‘don’t stop when you’re tired, stop when you’re done’. Hustle culture has become so ingrained in our society that almost every individual is fully immersed in this mentality, hence making it hard to recognise a healthy and balanced work life. Furthermore, the rise of social media and influencers promoting their seemingly perfect lifestyles puts forth a platform for people to compare and criticise their own lifestyles. This can make people believe that other people live far more exciting lives, which ultimately affects our happiness. This constant need to compare ourselves to one another creates not only a competitive work environment but also extremely unhappy – and even depressing – lives. The pursuit of work (in fear of being replaced or losing their job) can cause in low levels of happiness and occupational burnout.

The stress ultimately leads people to exhaustion.

Hustle culture fosters constantly toxic lifestyles. For instance, if someone spends too much time relaxing, it fuels guilt because they aren’t spending time doing their work. As a result, it can create low self-esteem and again low levels of happiness for people. Conversely, if one spends an excessive amount of time on their work, this doesn’t always result in the greatest amount of happiness, as there is a constant urge to set expectations above their capability.

Hustle culture does not only arise in workplaces but can also occur in schools. The school environment can place pressure on students as they are expected to get good grades and achieve high, yet in the process of this it is hard to simply take a break when they know their education is important and their peers will be working towards the same goals. This thereby replicates the effect of hustle culture, causing students’ mental health to deteriorate.

Many philosophers, such as Plato and Bentham, would disagree with the hustle culture lifestyle because it doesn’t focus on the happiness of one’s wellbeing. They believed that happiness is the greatest aim of moral conduct, which means that hustle culture (and the stress it creates) should be avoided in order to achieve a happier life.