Prior to the advent of the internet, everyone’s journey to personal contentment and happiness was typically a private matter. If what you needed to bring yourself joy after work was ripping nine cigarettes, binging television non-stop, or locking yourself in a dim closet to decompress, no one was the wiser. And, more importantly, no one cared.
But now, if your day involves things like going to work, eating food, walking your dog, and exercising, you best believe people are gonna be pissed.
Because … fuck those things?
This week, an influencer on TikTok crossed over to Twitter, where his day in the life post is making half the internet pull its hair out.
“This video was so depressing that I started tearing up watching it,” wrote @mrice97 of Connor Hubbard’s TikTok, which shows his daily routine of going to work, walking his dog, finishing a leftover sub from Jersey Mike’s, drinking a beer, and watching TV.
Connor’s Hubslife account on TikTok is dedicated to “normalizing the norm” and you might think he does a pretty good job of it. That day is pretty normal. And while not every day consists of the exact same routine—in another TikTok he attends a baseball game with his wife—the elements are pretty routine. Still, it’s hard to find much fault in it.
But Twitter did.
“Men like this used to lead legions into battle. Now he sits in traffic, on the way to the same cubicle every day. Where he will listen to some HR harpy lecture him on how he is the problem, while he watches as his society slowly decays. He may have brief moments of happiness with his pup, but these moments are fleeting. This is the hell of modernity for a lot of men,” wrote one user.
While that critique was more about society, others particularly found fault with @hubs.life’s day.
One described it as “Patrick Bateman, but make him depressed,” referring to the lead character in American Psycho.
“It’s like he’s stuck in eternal limbo,” wrote the Twitter user who first posted it.
In response to the backlash, a bunch of people came to hubs.life’s defense, noting that his life seems pretty nice.
One person wrote on the original TikTok that they found it reassuring that life would improve after college. @hubs.life responded, “Yes.”
Still others thought that perhaps the music was messing with people’s heads.
“I promise that 85% of the reason y’all think this is depressing is bc of the melancholy background music,” mused one user. They switched it to the Mario Kart music and suggested that the swap made it seem “likely a perfectly normal albeit adrenaline-pumping day.”
In the end, however, everyone missed that the video is a sponsored post for Daiya Flatbread, the meal he eats after work.
Congrats to Daiya, at least no one had anything bad to say about your food.
@hubs.life did not respond to an Instagram DM request for comment.
