Are You Tired?

Is everyone around you tired? 

Have you ever wondered why you and everyone around you is tired?

I think we as individuals and a society are suffering from the same malady: Post-Industrial Depression. This describes the general malaise we are experiencing as a result of living in the post-industrial age. 

With less personal communication and more digital communication, we are moving further into isolation and away from our communities. As social media shows us the narratives of jet-setters with flawless skin, picture-perfect families, and endless smiles, our sense of self takes a toll as we wonder why our own lives do not seem as glamorous. 

Information addiction is a socially accepted problem that plagues device-users who struggle to put their phones, tablets, and laptops away. After being indoctrinated into the world of social media applications as a teenager, I have had a hard time training myself to not pick up my phone and mindlessly scroll placating the craving for a dopamine rush.

Our access to information is a blessing and a curse, as we are all too aware that the oceans are filled with plastics, nuclear weapons can destroy the entire planet in minutes (which has nearly happened a number of times), and personal privacy has become a luxury that few can afford. 

These are just a few of the factors that contribute to the post-industrial depression we are experiencing.

We need to articulate and communicate what we are experiencing, or the problems that have developed in the past few decades will exacerbate before we can figure out what is happening. In order to do that, we need a language, and we are in the midst of creating one. My associate, Blair Chapman, and I began creating terminology to help us explain our observations and realized others may benefit from our vocabulary as well. We created Badphone2020 to help us do that, and we are combining social commentary with art and fashion. Post-Industrial Depression is the first term we are sharing through the project, and we look forward to sharing the others. 

I do not think we are stuck with post-industrial depression; I think we are in the transitional period. We can combat the ennui through deepening our understanding of the modern age, and this starts with the tools to conceptualize what is unique to this era. 

Badphone2020 is a subsidiary of Choice Forward. Find us at @ badphone2020 on Instagram and Youtube.

This article was originally posted on Medium at