The phrase “self-improvement” appears to be getting increasingly familiar in today’s world. Almost every other teenager is involved in this practice of trying to improve themselves and grow.
Self-improvement was a concept that was seen to appear in literary works all the way back in the mid-1900s. It has since grown to become one of the world’s best selling genres with book stores displaying shelves full of self-help books these days. The self-improvement
industry is also worth over 10 billion dollars as of today and is expected to grow a considerable amount in the coming years. However, why has this concept come to see such a surge in its popularity?
There are a few possible reasons for this. One may be the increased stress levels faced by people nowadays. Busy-ness and overworking have been praised, pressuring the youth into working harder and exerting themselves further. It’s no surprise that this has led to struggles arising. In about a decade up till 2017, there has been a 13% increase in cases of mental health and substance use disorders (according to the WHO). Self-improvement and self help promote a lifestyle meant to help battle such hurdles by promoting mental and physical well being and encouraging people to start prioritizing themselves.
Another factor that may have aided this surge could be the recent COVID-19 pandemic.During the phase of lockdown and social distancing a lot of us were left to spend large amounts of time by ourselves, we were forced to detach from our friends and family with the only means of communication being online.
The pandemic led to an increase in fear, anxiety, xenophobia and even stress. Another result of the pandemic was that school and work were now conducted online, leaving people with extra free time on hind. This could have been a cause for people turning towards self-improvement as either a means of comfort or as a hobby to pass time with.
Additionally, people tend towards conformity in society. It is a human being’s innate nature to fit in and seek a feeling of belonging in this world. As this lifestyle of self-improvement gets
more popular, more people are inclined to jump in on this trend.
While self-improvement and self help being popularised seems greatly advantageous to society there is a drawback to it. Today’s youth suffer from a lack of focus. With easy access to the internet and hundreds of pieces of media to consume only a click away, our ability to focus on tasks has been declining. Self-improvement comes off as a rewarding activity, however a lot of people take this as an excuse to simply consume information without actually working on it. Even if you haven’t actually worked on yourself, just reading a book or watching a video about self help gives you an illusion of having been productive. To take the next step and actually implement this lifestyle isn’t nearly as easy, which is why people tend to get stuck in a cycle of consumption with no actual progress being made.
That being said, we need to be careful, and we need to be mindful of our actions. The message behind this concept is still of great value and I believe with a little more awareness and responsibility towards our actions it is possible for people to be going down the right path. I see this popularization of self-improvement to be an opportunity to this world, and I believe that people are capable of overcoming hurdles and actually bettering themselves. Hundreds of thousands of people are already doing so. I have also seen my friends grow and improve over the years with the help of this concept and it is exciting to think about the changes it may bring about in the world.
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