Home > Work > How Do We Know We're Doing It Right: & Other Essays on Modern Life
1 " An aversion to boredom and a low tolerance for delayed gratification are at the root of binge culture. ... we have become a 'bingey society' because 'our souls aren't being attended to, in the world that we live in -- and so, we stuff them. With work, with food, with leisure. We're greedy. It comes from being given too much and at the same time too little.' Or as Oscar Wilde put it, 'Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. "
― Pandora Sykes , How Do We Know We're Doing It Right: & Other Essays on Modern Life
2 " In a world crowded with the white noise of other people's narratives -- the collective narrative of social media; the multi-strand narratives of binge TV -- having your own, singular, internal narrative is nothing short of essential. "
3 " The term 'infobesity' was coined in 2013 to describe the torrent of information clogging out arteries like cholesterol. It turns us into 'pancake people', ... 'Spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button. "
4 " Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future,’33 noted the writer Kahlil Gibran, ‘but from wanting to control it. "
5 " The woman that does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet. Our desire for validation is far older than the internet. "
6 " In an age when we are ever more targeted and profiled and mined for information, reading a book allows you to be, for so long as the covers hold you, truly quiet and undisturbed. "
7 " When my best friends had babies we were lucky that our friendships preexisted our new charges by decades. We never forgot who we once were to each other whilst embracing who we’d become. I may not have been able to see myself after my daughters birth but my best friends never lost sight of me. "
8 " It can’t be long before burnout is recognized by the NHS as a type of work-related stress. But we should be vary of using it as a non-specific term. Almost every single zeitgeisty buzz word or phrase has suffered the fate of overextension. Like “gaslighting” now applied to the mere act of criticizing a woman and “toxic” now applied to any kind of friendship or relationship that isn’t gold style perfect. I’ve heard people describing themselves as burned out when actually they are just really tired. "
9 " Empathy has become a misused buzz-word. It is transformed into a catch all term for everything good as a synonym of the morality, kindness and compassion. It is frequently mistaken for sympathy, which means aligning yourself with someone suffering, not inhabiting it. "
10 " Me without reading is like me without food. I would wilt and become silent. I don't read because it is 'better' than watching television. I read because I don't know what else to do. "
11 " I don’t live my live according to a rigid set of ideas and theories that only apply perfectly on the internet. There is real world where your own rules apply. I live my life according to prioritizing my happy ending in the world where i am statistically the least likely to witness that. And that’s my feminism. You are welcome to define yours. "
12 " There are so many ways through narrative myth and the validation of social media to reassure ourselves that we are doing things right that has meant the concept of rightness has been shon of any meaning. It has become mere lip service. Rather living the right life means being in a state of questioning. It involves self-sacrifice. Making choices should not be risk free, if they are then we are not considering the right options. We have to be ok with giving up capital, social capital, online capital and actual capital. And only then we can figure out how to be right. These is a socratic saying: she who is not contented with what she has would not be contented with what she would like to have. "
13 " The woman who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet, "