By Disha Angadi, Features Subeditor
I remember when I was a doe-eyed fresher anxiously anticipating the coveted years where I’d ‘find myself’ and ‘my people’. I couldn’t wait to immerse myself into the glory of University.
Nervous, I didn’t dare arrive without investigating the university experience on social media. I was inundated with advice from TikToks and pristine study vlogs videos on YouTube.
I yearned for the aesthetic life I saw online. But, after a couple of weeks at university, the cracks in the perfect mirage began to appear. After all, real life cannot be edited down into an Instagram reel …
These online resources might have been golden a decade ago. Who wouldn’t want a foolproof guide on how to make friends? On easy recipes that you can make in your microwave? Or, on how to get a first in all your essays? But, I find that with the sheer volume of content out there, often contradictory, this genre is no longer as effective as it once was. I feel as if this content no longer represents the university experience well.
With the evergreen Capitalist machine shaping our posts, life at university stops feeling like an experience, but a performance. From ‘uni-maxxing’ and picture-perfect ‘day-in-a-life’ vlogs setting unrealistic expectations, I was left feeling self-conscious.
This led to what I’d describe as ‘performative productivity.’ I’d try to go to all the freshers events, spend too much on an Instagrammable coffees, and pretending that I wasn’t as stressed as I really was…It wasn’t wrong to want to fit in or to indulge in some good ol’ coffee from Nero, but was I doing this because I wanted to or felt like I had to? My focus shifted from my interests to external perception (no thanks to my perfectly curated Pinterest boards). The truth is that university life is not a one-size-fits-all situation.
There will be days where you’re down with fresher’s flu, exhausted from that society’s pub crawl, or ones where you spent hours faffing about in the library, instead of working on your dissertation.
It is on these days that the ‘day-in-my-life’ videos where someone spends ages over their iPad, with a fresh manicure and £4 iced matcha in hand and the LinkedIn posts about someone’s swanky internship hit the hardest. They create the illusion of an idealised university experience, one with all highs and no lows.
This content conditions students to believe that they are one step closer to being an ‘academic weapon’ if they buy that new iPad or pay for Notion premium. We all fall into this trap, hoping that purchasing a new item translates into a steady stream of productivity (or at least, looking like we’re productive).
This narrative is not restricted to academics. It bleeds into every aspect of university life. This type of content contributes to the pressure to experience all three years of university in one!
Instagram reels and TikToks often advise students to say ‘yes’ to everything, which exacerbates burnout. The lines between choice and compulsion are blurred, causing us to make decisions we might regret.
So, what’s the upside to ‘studytube’ and university vlogs?
Students make this content to encourage others to make the most of their days. This only becomes harmful when it is portrayed as the one way to enjoy your university experience, when, in truth, it is one person’s ideal day.
Disha Angadi
Rather than pointing our pitchforks at these ‘studytubers’, incoming first years should consider them a separate experience, and set off to fresher academic pastures with an open mind, ready to build their own lives.
Featured: Epigram / Disha Angadi
Are you ready to experience university with an open mind?
