There's a tiktok going around of a creator saying something along the lines of "you need to stop going home directly after work, it's bad for your mental health. You need to start doing things, even small things, free things, like meeting friends or going for a walk in the park or taking a class, on weekdays."
And in theory, I totally agree! That is solid advice! That will improve your mental health in the long run.
But I think we need to have the conversation that modern capitalist society intentionally makes that hard to do! Sure, it's a nice thought to go for a walk after work, but who of us has access to a nice green, safe park in our immediate area to do our walking in? What about winter when you don't get out of work until it's already dark? It's great to go meet friends after work, but how do you do that when your friends are spread out all over the place and they all work just as hard as you do and are also busy and tired? It would be good for you to take a class, but that costs money that you might now have. Not to mention if you're working full time all your free time and what little energy you have during the week is spent trying to stay on top of the housework.
And that is fully intentional! That way you get home, you're too tired to do your housework so you buy some gadget that promises to make it easier for you, you're too tired to cook so you order in, and then you plop yourself in front of your screen of choice and let an algorithm feed you whatever it wants so you can shut off your brain, and you get your dopamine hits by buying stuff, so you feel some sort of fleeting happiness for a moment. Capitalism works best if the masses work hard for some profit of margin they will never benefit from, and then immediatly spend any money they did just make on whatever they are told to spend it on so the economy does well.
So yeah, I don't know what the solution to this is. But I think I will start challenging myself to do something for me after work every once in a while. Just as a tiny act of resistance, just to prove myself that I am more than just a cog in a machine.
temporarily hijacking this post to say this doesn’t account for disabled people either who have to work and then don’t have spoons for this but our current capitalistic society doesn’t support them as well. Not detracting — OP makes FANTASTIC points. Just wanted to do this add on :)
