Most "day in the life" videos on TikTok are irritating for a variety of reasons. There's the dreadful trend of stay-at-home girlfriends sharing their green juice and yoga rituals, the tech geeks with their expensive, ludicrous lunches, and then the days of influencers who are somehow still trying to convince us that what they do is work. Most of these videos are laced with privilege. The apartments are **** and span, the fridges full of expensive organic products. They work out at expensive home gyms or even more expensive fitness studios. It all makes me sick. Recently, however, I was introduced to a different sort of sickening "day in the life video," by way of Twitter.
Earlier this week, Twitter user @mrice97 shared a video from @hubs.life's TikTok account. The clip was accompanied with some pretty critical text: "This video was so depressing that I started tearing up watching it." Unsure of what to expect, I pressed play, and was met with one of the most dull lifestyle videos I've ever seen. The video takes us through @hubs.life's routine as "a 28-year-old with a normal job." The day consists of work, working out, drinking a freaking Michelob and then calling it a day. I guess he also plays with his dog.
After watching the video, I simply had to see the rest of @hubs.life's videos, and they're just as boring - if not more boring - than the one shared to Twitter. It also seems as though this is his "schtick," if you can call it that. He's even got stickers that say "Normalize Norm." As an unmarried creative who lives in a big city, my life is markedly more exciting than this dude's. And while getting married and moving into a nice area of Plano, Texas, might make some people happy, it sounds like hell to me. Where's the creativity? Where are the extracurriculars? Where is the fun? Also, where the hell is his wife? She rarely makes an appearance in any of her "hubs'" videos.
While many responses to the tweet were similar to mine, @hubs.life does have his fair share of defenders. And to be fair, leaving the office every day at 4:30 sounds pretty damn nice. But the empty vibe of this video and his other ones is something that is hard for me to shake. It also begs the question, would you rather have the same safe routine every day or live a spontaneous and exciting lifestyle? I know which I'd choose, but judging by these Twitter replies, it's a tougher choice than it may seem.
