Here’s a quick fun fact for those who’ve sworn themselves entirely off TikTok, out of the fear of having to run yet another social media account: You don’t actually need to log in to the app to scroll it.

Quite incredibly (but also quite scarily), the platform’s algorithm is still able to curate an incredible array of videos that it thinks will make you want to keep scrolling. And for this existential-crisis-ridden 28-year old, it’s decided to feed videos more along the 'self-help’ route recently: Lessons about unlearning people-pleasing, knowing how to draw healthier boundaries in your relationships or with work, and the like. 

Informally recorded videos (think an iPhone front camera set up with no external microphone and no subtitles) are valuable in their own way provided the message is strong. But what’s even cooler to me are those that have clearly had each shot mapped out, and then colour-graded to achieve the creator’s desired aesthetic, with a tight script to tie everything all in.

One such creator that has recently caught my attention is also a fellow young adult navigating life: Mylene Mae, who goes by @mylenesmind on both TikTok and Instagram.

I only know her tangentially from the videos that appear on my feed but her visual stories (it only feels fair that I call them that) have gone viral - and inspired many others to do the same - on the platform recently. This is thanks especially to a series called, “The 24 lessons I learned in 2024”.

The particular one that has stuck with me over the past week goes into what can loosely be described as the art of doing nothing. The key lesson: Intentional inaction - rather than desperately hunting down the answers - can actually be more beneficial sometimes when you're seeking to understand yourself better.

To be clear, it’s not a concept that is new in itself (this article has a good rundown, directed more towards the idea of burnout culture), nor new to me. But certain life lessons hit harder in certain seasons - and also when they take certain specific forms. Presented in this conversational, aesthetically pleasing style, the message has stuck with me.

My personal response?

I've decided to occasionally cut music out of the 'filler' spaces in my life for now.

My Spotify playlists (and earbuds) are my go-to lines of defence against everything - boredom, fatigue, fear and even frustration. To pass time, but to also find joy and solace.

But when I’m taking walks at the open air carpark downstairs after staring at the screen for far too long (and accepting that my brain will conjure nothing else for now), when I'm packed with others on the NEL at 7:15pm on the way home, and even when in the shower, I just keep still and… do nothing. It's been oddly comforting so far - hearing all the thoughts that I wanted to avoid suddenly come out of the woodwork… and then realising that my confrontation of them is actually what I needed to feel better over the longer run.

Lessons in life are perhaps learned with fervour at first, then forgotten inevitably with new pressures coming in, then picked up again when the right time calls for them more urgently.

And to be clear, the irony isn't lost on me - that this lesson I'm trying to re-integrate into my life has come from social media: The very thing that sees boredom as a threat.

Nonetheless, I think having the capacity to consider both sides is probably most sensible too: Knowing that social media has the ability to empower, as much as it being aware that it presents the danger of draining an individual. With @mylenesmind, I’ve been reminded of the former again. 

- Matt