Being a young person right now — or any person, for that matter — is not that easy. Our 24-hour news cycle makes sure we can never find relief from the impending environmental and economic doom of our society.
If you have the luxury of health insurance, seeking out a licensed professional to help cope with the many anxieties that come with existing in this timeline can be a useful tool for processing your emotions. But, a lot of us are broke and left to find other ways of coping.
A few months ago, I started developing a bit of an obsession with a niche community on YouTube. I think the most accurate and crude way of referring to it is “justice porn.” Essentially, the videos show brief, often intense encounters in which one person (a bad guy) attempts to do something wrong (hit-and-run, robbery, racist tirade, etc.), and is actually punished in the same video.
Sometimes the bad guy gets arrested, sometimes they get fired, or sometimes they get a swift punch to the face. No matter the kind of video, I’ve found a deep sense of satisfaction in seeing some semblance of justice in this world, even if I have to get it online.
I decided to ask some of my college-aged peers about other strange forms of escapism they use to cope with the incessant stress of basically living online. These are their answers.
Impressive dance videos
Instagram has definitely made a lot of industries mold their content into something more accessible for the platform, and choreographed dance is one of them.
Just a quick glance at the pages of some of the best-known Instagram dancers, such as Aliya Janell or Jojo Gomez, shows you the millions of people tuned in to their sweet moves to forget the pain of minimum wage not being sufficient to rent a two-bedroom in any of our 50 united states.
“It’s mindless entertainment and usually set to songs I like,” said Mary Margaret Bilodeau, a sophomore marketing major. “They’re all really great dancers, and it’s just fun to watch.”
Soap cutting videos
ASMR is another concept that’s blown up thanks to YouTube and Instagram. ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response;” it’s basically a feeling of deep, tingling calm, often prompted by an external stimulus.
ASMR usually requires a noise trigger, like a person tapping their nails on a hard surface, whispering or even eating softly into a microphone. Soap cutting in particular mixes visual stimulation with the noise element of ASMR — the perfect combination for when your elected officials think that global warming is a hoax. Isabela Torres, 18, from Rockville, described the result as “weirdly relaxing.”
’90s cartoons
1990s nostalgia has been having a moment for quite some time now, and that includes some of the adult-oriented cartoons that appeared during the decade.
Twitter accounts like @simpscreens, which tweets random screenshots from the earlier years of The Simpsons, have thousands of followers, and still become meme fodder despite the age of the content.
“[The Simpsons has] very nostalgic, easy humor, with beautiful animation and colors,” said Mira Guetzow, a sophomore at Wesleyan University.
Other gems from this era include Daria, Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill — all of which remain wildly popular even in the current golden age of television. Some of these shows haven’t aged as well as others, but there’s something satisfying about media from a simpler time.
No matter which online community or television show you choose to seek refuge in, remember that most of the world’s craziness is not your fault, and there are people fighting for a brighter future, one where maybe everyone can have an actual, real-life therapist. But until that day comes, comfort yourself with the fact that you will always have content.