Opinion: The Problem with ‘Positivity Culture'

The Future is (Not) Bright: The Toxic Positivity Trap in a Doomer World

It’s 2024, and the future’s looking grim, right? The world’s on fire (literally), climate change is only trending more frequently, and your dream job in tech has become some kind of corporate hostage situation where the hostages are your self-esteem and hope for any future career. The game is rigged, and the stakes are high. But hey—stay positive, right? If you’re not projecting an image of perfect, sunshine-filled happiness, are you even trying to make it in this cruel world?

Here we are, caught in a paradox. On one hand, you’ve got a generation of doomers who are hell-bent on telling everyone how bleak and hopeless things are (thanks, Zoomers). On the other, there’s the ever-growing force of toxic positivity trying to “fix” the world with a hashtag and a wellness retreat.

Guess what? Neither side has the answer.

Doomer Culture: Why the Kids Are All Right—But Also, They’re Not

If you spend five minutes on Twitter (now called X for whatever reason), you’ll see Gen Z and Alpha doing what they do best: predicting the end of the world in real-time. They’ve inherited a planet that’s boiling under its own weight, a job market that treats them like a joke, and an economy that makes “getting by” seem like an unattainable goal. They’ve been gaslighted by an entire generation before them, and now they’re collectively shaking their heads while waiting for it all to implode.

So, yeah, it makes sense that they’re living in a perpetual state of existential crisis. How could you not when the world keeps promising solutions that turn out to be nothing more than slicked-up scams and all the people making decisions are all old men that look like they would communicate through morse code using the clattering of their loose dentures? Here’s the thing: doomers have a point. They are right to be skeptical about a system that only seems to reward the already privileged, and the job market? Good luck finding anything other than a soul-crushing, self-esteem-destroying minefield.

Take the tech industry, for example. The opportunities are endless! But so are the fake job postings. Companies figured out the “FREE MONEY HACK” that people have been searching for like the One Piece for decades: post listings for jobs that don’t exist to rack up free tax credits, it’s like some dystopian version of corporate charity. And if you somehow manage to get an interview? Don’t be surprised if you’re ghosted for weeks, only to get a call at 3 p.m. on a Friday asking you if you have 5+ years of experience for an entry-level position. And if somehow they haven’t hung up on you, by the third question it’ll be you that’s waiting to get off the line. These interviewers don’t even know what job they’re hiring for half the time; they’re just reading off a script, pretending that “What’s your greatest weakness?” is a valid question for an actual grown-up.

I get it, doomers. It’s hard to stay optimistic when you’re navigating a system that seems built to make you fail. But here’s the thing—this negativity, as valid as it feels in the moment, is just creating a toxic echo chamber. If everyone’s stuck in this “we’re doomed” spiral, how are we ever going to get out of it? The system may suck, but not trying to change it doesn’t do anyone any good.

Toxic Positivity: “Good Vibes Only” for the Already Privileged

Enter the opposite end of the spectrum: toxic positivity. It’s everywhere, and it’s always lurking, waiting to convince you that all your problems could be solved with a little more “positive thinking” and “good vibes hehe XD.”

Listen, positivity isn’t the problem here. I love positivity. I could have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The problem is pretending that if we all just slap a smile on our faces and tell ourselves “everything will be okay,” the world will magically shift into some pristine version of itself. But here’s the thing—pretending everything is okay when it’s not doesn’t help anyone. In fact, it actively makes things worse.

You’re struggling. I’m struggling. Littly Timmy down the street at the age of 4 is struggling. But you’re expected to act like you’re on a permanent vacation with crystal-clear waters and a sunset view. You can’t let anyone see that you’re stressed, tired, or lost. Why? Because people won’t care, and worse, they’ll use it against you. This is especially true in Korean culture, where every single interaction seems to be scrutinized by others, and showing any sign of vulnerability is treated like an admission of failure. Keep your emotions bottled up. Keep the facade intact. Smile, post your filtered selfies that probably wouldn’t even pass the FaceID test, and pray your self-doubt doesn’t catch up with you.

But when you’re forced to act like you’re “fine” all the time, there’s no room to be real. No room for vulnerability. No room to say, “I’m struggling, and that’s okay.” Instead, you get trapped in an endless cycle of “good vibes only :))” mantras that do nothing but feed your feelings of inadequacy.

Let’s face it: The wellness industry doesn’t have the answers. More yoga poses and motivational quotes won’t fix a broken system. If anything, they just gloss over the real issues, making you feel worse when you realize that no amount of “positivity” can make a toxic job market or the pressures of society go away.

The Echo Chamber of Negativity

This is where the doomers and the “good vibes” people come together—not in harmony, but in the dark vortex of negativity. Turns out, negative numbers don’t always cancel out. As everyone falls into their own echo chambers, they start validating each other’s worst fears. Doomers validate each other’s apocalyptic views with memes about how we’re all doomed to drown in student debt and climate change. The positivity crowd validates each other’s rejection of reality with hashtags about manifesting good energy and success.

And what’s the endgame here? The negativity that the doomers spread only gets worse when they’re surrounded by other people who share their fears. Meanwhile, the “good vibes” crowd’s refusal to acknowledge reality makes everyone feel like they’re missing something—like maybe they’re the ones doing it wrong.

Both sides are missing the point. The answer isn’t either/or. It’s a messy, ugly “both.”

You’re Struggling, I’m Struggling, We’re All Struggling—And That’s Okay

Here’s the unvarnished truth: life isn’t going to be perfect. No amount of positive thinking will change the fact that the system is broken. The job market is broken. And yeah, your social media posts? They’re not changing that either. We all have our moments of struggle, whether it’s in our career, personal lives, or even just navigating a society that feels like it was built to make us fail.

The trick is not to pretend it’s all sunshine and rainbows when it’s clearly not. Embrace the pain. Embrace the struggle. The idea that we can fix everything with good vibes is toxic because it keeps us from dealing with the root problems. You can’t heal if you’re not willing to face what’s wrong. You can’t fix the system if you’re too busy pretending it’s all working out.

In the end, maybe we should all take a page out of Inside Out—not the “happiness is everything” page, but the one that shows how Sadness, Anger, and Fear are just as vital as Joy. They all have a role to play in who we are and how we navigate the world.

Final Thoughts: Authenticity Over Positivity

So what’s the solution here? Simple: stop pretending. Stop pretending everything is fine. Stop pretending like you’re not struggling. Be real. Embrace the mess. Let’s stop treating our emotions like problems to be “fixed” and start accepting them as part of the human condition. And when it comes to navigating this godforsaken world, authenticity is the best tool we’ve got. Maybe we won’t change the world overnight—but we’ll be better equipped to survive in it.

And no, it doesn’t mean everything’s going to be okay. Even with this “solution”, there’s no guarantee you’ll end up with your happy ever after. But that’s life.