In a world where rest feels like laziness and hustle culture is glorified, mental health is at an all-time low
By: Nada Bouchalkha, Opinion Contributor
When was the last time you felt that wave of unforgiving guilt for taking a lazy day? Maybe it crept in after skipping your workout or missing a lecture you knew wasn’t going to hold your attention.
That relentless voice urging you to do more, achieve more and be more - we all know it too well. But here’s the truth: that internalized voice has a name - hustle culture. Recognizing it is the first step toward taking back control.
Everyone’s relationship with hustle culture is different. But if any of this sounds familiar, it might be time to let go of its hold.
The mantra that "the grind never stops" becomes so deeply embedded in our thinking that we begin punishing ourselves, by depriving ourselves of sleep or denying ourselves leisure activities and forcing us to cancel plans or abandon hobbies. This misplaced sense of guilt often leads to deteriorating mental health, burnout, exhaustion and even physical illness brought on by stress.
The constant need to keep up, coupled with the fear of falling behind, can feel exhausting. But life isn’t a race and sometimes, slowing down is more beneficial than you think.
At university, an environment where success is measured primarily by your GPA and busyness, it’s easy to feel like taking time for yourself is a sign of weakness. Social media reinforces this pressure, saturating us with carefully curated videos of high achievers that highlight only their best days. The constant need to keep up, coupled with the fear of falling behind, can feel exhausting. But life isn’t a race and sometimes slowing down is more beneficial than you think.
This toxic cycle traps us in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction. It becomes near impossible to appreciate the little things in life when you’re constantly operating in survival mode. True satisfaction cannot be achieved when success is endlessly redefined around productivity because it leaves no room for self-acceptance.
Whether this resonates with you as a student taking on too many courses or as someone juggling multiple jobs at once, the question remains: if being productive comes at the expense of your mental health, is it really worth it?
Allowing yourself to rest is the first step towards balance and learning what healthy productivity looks like.
Healthy productivity is about achieving a balance between work and well-being. As a student, this means setting realistic goals and allowing yourself to slow down. After all, every step forward, no matter how little, will contribute to your growth.
It is important to grant yourself compassion for the days that you don’t meet the high standards you set. By nurturing both your personal and professional development, you can not only achieve success but also grow as an individual.
There is a unique tranquility in allowing yourself to embrace the little things like napping, spending time with friends, going on a walk, or even doing nothing at all.
It’s essential to discover your sense of purpose beyond merely material achievements and productivity-driven goals. There is a unique tranquility in allowing yourself to embrace the little things like napping, spending time with friends, going on a walk, or even doing nothing at all.
It has be said that the most successful animals are those that are the laziest. Even in nature, survival often depends on conserving energy rather than constantly expending it. Similarly, the constant chase of productivity without rest can leave us burnt out, detached from our goals, disconnected and unfulfilled.
You should feel a sense of pride not only during your "hustle" but also in your moments doing nothing at all. Though doing nothing may seem easy, social pressures can make it feel surprisingly difficult, especially for students who are endlessly pressured to prioritize grades and build a “perfect” resume.
Embracing downtime and investing in leisure activities that restore us are not signs of laziness or weakness. Rather, they sustain our mental health and make us more productive in the long run.
So, this isn’t to say you should drop everything and become a surfer, unless of course that is your true calling. But if being "lazy" means taking care of yourself, then by all means do so.
Catharine Nguyen-Pham / The Silhouette
Our reliability on technology is making us lazy thinkers. As technology advances, we begin to rely less on our cognitive abilities. Hardly anyone will bother to memorize a phone number now that we can store it in our phones. How many phones numbers do you know by heart?
We rely on technology for everything. If you are lost, you can easily use Google Maps to find directions. If you fail to spell a word correctly in a text message, autocorrect will fix it for you. If you forget someone’s birthday, it will come up as a reminder on Facebook. If you need to organize your schedule, you can just put it on your phone.
Our reliance on technology has skyrocketed over the past 20 years. This includes our use of cell phones, computers, credit and debit cards, the Internet and cars. For example, smartphones have recently become an essential tool in our everyday lives. We use it to access social media, personal organizing, GPS, the Internet, audio, calling and texting.
Technology has been consistently advancing over the past few years. Do you remember when USB drives with 32MB of memory were the new best thing? That was 15 years ago. Now, their storage capacity can be as large at 2TB. That is 65,000 times the amount they were 15 years ago.
With such advanced technology, it’s no wonder why everyone relies on it so much. It’s reached the point where I struggle to spell and do simple calculations. What’s the point? I can do math with the calculator on my phone and spell-check can fix my grammar. Without needing to learn the rules, I can use my saved time for other activities.
This is completely different compared to a decade ago. I still remember the day when I had to look up books in a library to find specific information for a class project. But now, I can easily use the Internet for research. It’s much faster and gives you more variety than any book would. For instance, if you search up “how to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you” on Google, you will get over fifteen million results. If you look up “how to tell if your cat is plotting to kill you” in a book, you will get maybe a line or two – if you are lucky.
With technology having numerous advantages such as being faster and more efficient, we have stopped relying on our minds to think. Essentially, we have become lazy thinkers. Instead of using our minds, we use technology to store endless amounts of information. We rely less on our memory now that we have access to all this information at our fingertips.
So, in a sense, technology is like an extension of our brain. Think of it like a bank. A bank contains of all of your savings. When you need more money, it is readily available for withdrawal. It contains all that extra money you can’t store. Now, to access this money, you just need a bank card.
It’s kind of similar with the technology we have now. Once we learn to access all the information, the less we are able to store in our minds. There’s no need to devote our energy into memorizing a definition or equation when we can look it up.
So, it seems like our reliance on technology is affecting our ability to think. We have become lazier in terms of memorizing and learning basic rules for math and grammar. But with technology continuously changing the way we use our memories, we have learned to apply our skills and abilities to learn how to use technology rather than our brains.
