The blinking lights of paparazzi. People questioning you, interested in your life. A thunder of applause, all for you.

Many in the 2000s saw this lavish lifestyle as a simple step out of the door. From tech startups in garages, to songs being produced and shared in the comfort of your home, the dream became reality for the common person.

Money wasn’t just the staple of wealth, but the gossip on everyone’s tongue. From hip hop lyrics to movies, you could say, it’s ‘all about the money’.

For those growing up during the 2000s, their lifestyle shifted from the outside world to the inside world, of an ever-growing economy of communication on the new and shiny smartphone. Along with this came the launch of social media, with sites like Facebook being established in 2004. With this spiderweb of communication, there was a shift in personal interest in small friend groups, to the details of a stranger’s life. Everyone and everything became connected.

Now, even celebrities, people seen as unreachable, could be interacted with through a simple comment. Slowly, people became exposed to entrepreneurs starting up businesses, to blogs from a hard-working mother showing off her hotel on vacation. Individual dreams started becoming not so individual. There was a looming idea that if you weren’t working hard and long hours to get the money you needed to achieve your goals, then you were falling far behind, and unless you started right that instant, you would never be able to reach them.

This culture isn’t something left in the past, though. Like many other trends, it all came full circle. We have now experienced a phenomenon through the rise of this culture again. Only, somehow, it’s gotten more poisoned and toxic. After COVID-19, and the idea that people could be themselves, there started to rise an opposing idea leaking in throughout podcasts and social media. These would label the ideal man as an ‘alpha male’. The Cambridge dictionary describes this as, ‘a strong successful man who likes to be in charge of others’. A lot of these men wanted to bring back traditional values rooted in misogyny and express how they are ‘red-pilled’, a term used in reference to The Matrix movie for waking up to the truth instead of living in an illusion. Ironically these were famously directed and written by two transgender women, the Wachowski sisters, who express that the meaning of the movie is about the trans experience. These men have reimplemented a harsh hustle culture, one built on exploiting impressionable young boys into buying courses, as well as women and their bodies through ‘e-pimping’ via OnlyFans management agencies. They do this by flexing their wealth, their cars, their girls. Most of these men are seen in Dubai surrounded by futuristic-looking buildings as they tell these young boys that ‘they can be just like them’.

Hustle culture itself is an exploitative idea that revolves around classist ideologies. More specifically, it focuses on an individual overworking themselves to hopefully achieve something that isn’t even promised. On top of that, it ignores people’s living situations, instead using alarmist language and branding them as ‘lazy’ if they haven’t started up a business or course, claiming people aren’t ‘living up to their potential’ or ‘making the most money they can’.

It’s important to note that part of the rise of hustle culture can be notably linked to The American Dream: the concept that, no matter who you are, you can achieve success through hard work and determination.

Unfortunately, with today’s economy, hustle culture is transforming more into a lifestyle and not a ‘dream’. As we see rent and prices increase, so does the need to have more than one stream of income. So, if the standard individual is highly likely to experience burnout and issues of self-doubt, what can we do?

Well, the pandemic did actually bring about something good. People, stuck in their homes with nothing else to do but work and sit around, started to discover that maybe slowing down and getting away from the hustle and bustle of normal life was a good thing. So, the term ‘slow living’ started to make the rounds after forty years of lying dormant, after stemming from Italy in the 1980s. People started to ditch the curated aesthetic of their lives and focus on more meaningful hobbies. The idea that contributing a few hours a week to your dream was enough began to bloom, and in return, it made people happier. Slow living could make someone notice the little details that a hustler wouldn’t. It would allow them to be grounded with their thoughts and feel more connected with themselves. After all, if someone has a positive outlook on life itself, then aren’t they already living it to the fullest?

Edited by Jemima Humphrey

Subedited by Lydia Gallagher