While Jeff Bezos is funding anti-aging research and aiming for a young forever, young people like to define themselves as old souls since they discovered the relaxing virtues of knitting and pottery during confinement. Every day, the plan-plan develops new trends, largely driven by TikTok, the social network of choice for teenagers, where #fishing videos have accumulated more than 94 billion views and #birding (birdwatching) more than 136 million. “It’s youthism that is old-fashioned”as Michel Drucker said so well, four years ago.
To slow down. A remedy for the daily emergency? The start of depression? The trait of a soft generation? At a time when anyone can have cannabis delivered in twenty minutes by contacting their dealer on WhatsApp and unleashing their electric scooter to rush at 100 kilometers per hour, the rebels changed sides. Ex-Baby Disney Turned Marvel Creature Zendaya Claims Quiet Evenings In Front Of The TV – “A surprise birthday in Las Vegas, a nightmare! », she formulates. Swooning in the herbal tea section, washing with a washcloth or playing belote seem to be the latest subversive acts.
“This form of resistance is not new., explains Fanny Parise, anthropologist and author of Spoiled children. Anthropology of the myth of responsible capitalism (Payot, 2022). It is linked to the rise of psycho-spirituality [la quête de soi et du bonheur, qui passe par le développement et l’épanouissement personnels], identified as early as the 1980s in hyperindividualistic Western societies. It leads to what is called in sociology “reinsurance practices”. Knitting like Scrabble are activities where you feel like you have everything under control, because their know-how is part of a tradition. »
do it yourself
The threat of a climatic apocalypse ended up awakening in the youngest an ancestral practical sense that digital technology had put to sleep. “I would not like to find myself in a forest without being able to recognize the plants and fungi to feed mesays Sarah R., 31, employed in a marketing company. My grandparents come from Normandy. They were more grounded, which made them more serene. » The young woman follows their model: she forces herself to do as many things as possible by herself, starting with picking, to be able to fend for herself in case of force majeure. Horrified by the available variety of pasta boxesshe cooks a family dish every Sunday (chicken in a pot, beef cheek or cod brandade) and distributes her grub in containers, preferably glass – “not bentos” – for the whole week. In short, she devotes herself to batch cooking. “With my girlfriends, we love grandmother’s tips. We call ourselves the “bobonnes team” and we have become specialists in baking soda… No spot can resist us »she adds.
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