The Languishing Era

Adam Grant’s article on languishing was the most-read article on New York Times in 2021. I have never really been a huge Adam Grant fan — feels like what he does is pop psychology, i.e. Gladwell — but it’s a good article where he defines languishing as such:

Languishing is a sense of stagnation and emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days, looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And it might be the dominant emotion of 2021.

More:

Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health. It’s the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being. You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work. It appears to be more common than major depression — and in some ways it may be a bigger risk factor for mental illness.

Does seem to describe 2021, yes. And parts of 2020. And now, with omicron and what happens next, probably chunks of 2022 as well. Goddamn.

And herein lies the problem:

The term was coined by a sociologist named Corey Keyes, who was struck that many people who weren’t depressed also weren’t thriving. His research suggests that the people most likely to experience major depression and anxiety disorders in the next decade aren’t the ones with those symptoms today.

Right. We don’t understand the long-term implications of what we’re going through right now. We assume that the long-term ramifications of COVID involve some sort of mental health decline, although early studies indicate that might not be accurate. But there’s definitely something that will come of kids losing in-school time, kids losing access to peers, adults becoming more insular, “the remote revolution” that threatened managerial control across the map, grandparents passing on via an iPad screen, and tribal divisions flaring up left and right. Something, in 10 years, will look a lot different than it would have if COVID never appeared for us. (“Parallel timeline.”) What exactly is that thing, that societal element or construction that will appear different? We don’t entirely know. It could be unruly, TikTok-obsessed kids. It could be people in their late 30s who have no friends beyond their spouse. It could be increased automation. But something is changing, because right now, so many of us are languishing.

COVID, and the corresponding political shit that happened around it, has legitimately torn apart families, i.e. vax and anti-vax and whatnot. You can argue that tons of shit tears apart families, from errant Instagram posts to the 2016 election, but this like, really tore apart families, as in “You can’t come to our gathering because of your vaccination status.” That’s gotta have some long-term impacts, no?

We’re all languishing now. I get texts and have plans here and there, and I have goals and aspirations for 2022, but deep down I know I’m languishing and waiting for something to happen and change.

Do you feel the same way?