Have you seen the popular trend on TikTok of people mostly in their 20s posting videos of their daily boring lives? You know, the 5-9 after a 9-5 type POV videos. They have figured out a way to monetize having what most of us call a normal life. Spoiler alert, getting up, going to work, coming home, and making dinner is what most of us do.
It’s crazy that there are so many people who love to watch these videos, comment on them, and live inside some giant virtual warm hug where it’s okay to feel good about being normal.
Would people watch me post videos about getting the kids out the door for school, sitting at a computer, eating leftovers for lunch, sitting at a computer again, walking around the block, making dinner, and then topping it all off by watching TV?
Maybe I am missing out on an opportunity? I would lean towards it, but I am not.
It does make me think back to my 20s when I really could have cashed in on being boring.
I had many days of mundane life and going through the motions as I figured it all out. The difference was, that I had no real way to share it with everyone so easily.
I think back in particular to one of the most boring and low points of my young adult life – the first summer after graduating from University and living with my best friend in London, Ontario. The roommate part was a dream. The lifestyle was not.
We both did not have jobs. We both did not have money. But we were going back to school in the fall, so full-time jobs were not an option. Part-time work was sparse. There was house painting, retail, and the usual summer work roles. We ended up instead, living a broke and boring lifestyle.
Despite being very good at being bored and entertaining ourselves, it was pretty bleak to find ways to fill the days.
We coined it as the ‘summer of shame’ and my friend and I reference this period quite often when we need to remind ourselves where we came from and that things are not bad at all now.
We missed out on sharing slick videos showing everyone just how “normal” and boring we were. 90-second clips of how sad the dinners were. Giant pots of rice. French fries cooked in a sketchy deep fryer that eventually caught on fire. A lot of KD.
Videos of us going to the local Jumbo Video and having the hardest time finding a movie we could agree on.
Maybe they could have become popular enough that the ‘summer of shame’ was a launching pad.
These are the random things I think about when our kids ask about what it was like growing up without phones or the advancement of social media sites.
Now that I think about it, I’m glad those videos don’t exist. I don’t need to relive that time in my life again.