7 hours ago
1
In 1976, Tom Wolfe published an essay in New York Magazine calling it the “Me” decade. Americans, he argued, had turned away from the collective causes of the 1960s and inward, toward personal fulfillment: therapy, self-help seminars, astrology, the search for a truer self. Christopher Lasch made a similar case a few years later in “The Culture of Narcissism,” describing a retreat from public life into private psychological maintenance.
Fifty years later, that cultural shift has embraced the convenience economy, creating what I’ll go ahead and call “me-maxxing.” The convenience economy brought about food and grocery delivery straight to your doors, all without talking to a human. You can go through self-checkout and avoid the long lines, just how you can order your coffee from your app a few blocks away and pick it up as you pass by. Me-maxxing is simply the result of the convenience economy placing a higher value on your personal time. My time is valuable, and unlike the “Me” decade of days old, the current technology has put a premium on extracting the most out of my availability. As a result, the optimization of my time also means I’m skipping those moments of human exchange, all to save a few saved minutes.
English (US) ·