An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials - the cultural
shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for
drastic change.
Do you feel like your life is an endless to-do list? Do you find
yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because you're too
exhausted to pick up a book? Are you mired in debt, or feel like you
work all the time, or feel pressure to take whatever gives you joy and
turn it into a monetizable hustle? Welcome to burnout culture.
While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in
Can't Even, BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen
Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the
millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that
have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace,
and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the
constant pressure to "perform" our lives online. The genesis for the
book is Petersen's viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has
amassed over seven million reads since its publication in January 2019.
Can't Even goes beyond the original article, as Petersen examines how
millennials have arrived at this point of burnout (think: unchecked
capitalism and changing labor laws) and examines the phenomenon through
a variety of lenses - including how burnout affects the way we work,
parent, and socialize - describing its resonance in alarming
familiarity. Utilizing a combination of sociohistorical framework,
original interviews, and detailed analysis, Can't Even offers a
galvanizing, intimate, and ultimately redemptive look at the lives of
this much-maligned generation, and will be required listening for both
millennials and the parents and employers trying to understand them.
