We will never be modern

Blurring the lines between life and work

Featured in

  • Published 20230801
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-86-3
  • Extent: 200pp
  • Paperback (234 x 153mm), eBook

MY INSTAGRAM FEED, an information-stream cosplaying as a hyper-relevant town square, has undergone a radical transformation in the past few years. Whereas once that endless deluge teemed with benign yet revealing snapshots of friends moving through the motions and milestones of life – brunches, holidays, weddings and pregnancies – today’s experience is far removed. Swimming between algorithmically selected carousels of memes and adverts for beauty products is a new ideological current. Gone is the hustle-hustle-girl-boss era of the 2010s – unceremoniously swept out alongside disgraced entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes, controversial former CEO Audrey Gelman and any societal consensus on vaccines. The artifice of the ‘rise and grind’ mentality has been exposed. Cloaked in the guise of individual empowerment, expressed in language co-opted from radical Black feminists, rings out a new clarion call: Folks, gather round. Forget everything else. The time has come for you to Live Your Best Life! 

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

More from author

The keepers of history

My name holds my history. That is to say, my name carries my father’s name, his father’s name and the father before him, seven generations back. My name allows us to time-travel several hundred years; these men kept alive through me.

More from this edition

Louche

Poetry On the bleached beachof café seats, he’s drenched, hairslicked, tarnished as tinespulled up from a shipwreck, savea naughty part:silver forelock a hookswaying as he...

Salted

FictionWe are absorbed in our work until we are not. Mostly we take breaks together, sitting outside in the sunshine waiting for our thoughts to settle, waiting for our lives to begin. Gus and I have both applied for the same scholarship. We’ll find out at the end of the month. Eve is organising a group show and wanted my latest painting as the centrepiece, but I won’t finish it in time, so I drop out.  ‘I’ve got something ready,’ says Gus. Easy enough to find someone to fill my place.

Lying on grass

FictionJamie wishes he could be more like Todd. Not because Todd’s excellent, but because he figures out what he wants and does it. As they pull out bits and pieces from the skip to build their drum sets, Jamie thinks about how he wants to be free, but doesn’t know if that’s something a person can ‘do’. After a while they’ve constructed two sets side by side at the front of the driveway. They’re not buckets, tins or lids: they’re tom drums, snare drums and cymbals.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.