…ty tactics and study techniques. A key feature of these videos is aesthetics—from the right ruler to the perfect pen. Lighting is an important part of a study creator’s vibe: candles, string lights, salt lamps, and neon lights are all common fare. Most creators are students them…

Aestheticization making the unbearable bearable.

…es across most major platforms. Whether or not lo-fi music truly helps you study better is debatable, but the science is largely irrelevant to the tens of thousands of listeners who join live streams each day to hear hours-long mixes of different artists evoking a similar sound: a blend of bland, chill, premium mediocre. Lofi Girl is one of the largest …

I despise the lazy invocation of a messy concept dripping in vague generational disdain, “things used to be good and they’re bad now.” No one who doesn’t understand the intentional use of music as a valuable tool should be writing on this topic.

…ecommended apps are often free, there’s an inescapable undercurrent of materialism on #StudyTok, suggesting that if you buy the right notebook (Hamelin), pens (MUJI), or keyboard (Moffi), your study problems will be solved. It’s understandable—adults trea…

I think it’s interesting how explicitly studyblr bloggers will talk about using fetish objects to drag motivation out of themselves, rather than efficacy. Using a shiny new highlighter to get some dopamine out of a slog is real in a way that using a shiny new notebook to better understand physics isn’t.

…ountability provide a solution. Feeling isolated, virtual study partners create a sense of fellowship. On Study Web, while stressed, students have accepted their lot—they’re not investigating the rightness or wrongness of the pressurized environment of the Gen Z student or asking whether college is worth it at all. 12-hour Study With Me videos are seen as something to aspire to rather than rebel from. Students accept the premise that school and studying are non-negotiables. Where they come from, where they live, their beliefs and value systems are not barriers to community-building; they suffer in common. However superficial, with its bu…

This seems a little half-baked only because – well, “people should be pushing to find alternative paths, not just accepting the shitty one in front of them” is also a narrative that assumes “finding alternative paths” is sort of…. possible… in a way it isn’t necessarily. What if making-the-best-of-it is the right choice?