Name: Can't Even
ISBN: 9780358561842

Anne Helen Petersen

An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials--the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change

How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

Can't Even

From acclaimed writer and Buzzfeed cultural columnist Anne Helen Petersen comes an incendiary examination of burnout in millennials, probing the social conditions that feed the pervasive anxiety, powerlessness, and disenfranchisement that have defined this generation.

Sandrin

This book, even though its catered to the American reader, does an excellent job discussing and illustrating experiences that i could (sadly) relate to. 
It was insightful, very well organized with clear themes, and interesting thoughts on the subject. 
BUT the closing remarks were frankly so out of left field. It was as if i was transported back in time to my tumblr days, reading fantasy fanfictions instead of doing my homework. It honestly made me cringe so bad that i just cant give it 5 stars.

Wilde

"Every time someone makes fun of a Millennial's undergrad or grad degree, or denigrates a job that somehow manages to funnel the passion that we were told by the adults in our lives to follow; every time someone is befuddled by a job description (social media manager!) that doesn't match their personal understanding of hard work and chooses to ridicule it instead- all those messages come together to tell us that our work is either easy or pointless. No wonder we spend so much time trying to communicate how hard we work."

This book hits hard. A must read for Millennials, very accessible.

Andrea Rosen

Some very astute and poignant analysis but could have been summed up shorter.

A BEST BOOK OF THE FALL AS SEEN IN: Apartment Therapy • Book Riot • Business Insider • BuzzFeed • Daily Nebraskan • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • Fortune • Harper’s Bazaar • HelloGiggles • LinkedIn • O Magazine • Time Magazine “[A] razor sharp book of cultural criticism . . . With blistering prose and all-too vivid reporting, Petersen lays bare the burnout and despair of millennials, while also charting a path to a world where members of her generation can feel as if the boot has been removed from their necks.”—Esquire “An analytically precise, deeply empathic book about the psychic toll modern capitalism has taken on those shaped by it. Can’t Even is essential to understanding our age, and ourselves.”—Ezra Klein, Vox co-founder and New York Times best-selling author of Why We’re Polarized An incendiary examination of burnout in millennials—the cultural shifts that got us here, the pressures that sustain it, and the need for drastic change Do you feel like your life is an endless to-do list? Do you find yourself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram because you’re too exhausted to pick up a book? Are you mired in debt, or feel like you work all the time, or feel pressure to take whatever gives you joy and turn it into a monetizable hustle? Welcome to burnout culture. While burnout may seem like the default setting for the modern era, in Can’t Even, BuzzFeed culture writer and former academic Anne Helen Petersen argues that burnout is a definitional condition for the millennial generation, born out of distrust in the institutions that have failed us, the unrealistic expectations of the modern workplace, and a sharp uptick in anxiety and hopelessness exacerbated by the constant pressure to “perform” our lives online. The genesis for the book is Petersen’s viral BuzzFeed article on the topic, which has amassed over seven million reads since its publication in January 2019. Can’t Even goes beyond the original article, as Petersen examines how millennials have arrived at this point of burnout (think: unchecked capitalism and changing labor laws) and examines the phenomenon through a variety of lenses—including how burnout affects the way we work, parent, and socialize—describing its resonance in alarming familiarity. Utilizing a combination of sociohistorical framework, original interviews, and detailed analysis, Can’t Even offers a galvanizing, intimate, and ultimately redemptive look at the lives of this much-maligned generation, and will be required reading for both millennials and the parents and employers trying to understand them.

Rachel O.

This modern culture book provides a searing analysis on why so many millennials experience burnout and how it might have to do with having helicopter parents.

Genuinely enlightening and all the more reason to live by the phrase ✨”fuck passion, pay me”✨

Ryan LaFerney

As a millennial,, reading Can't Even was a very cathartic experience. This is a defining work about a generation burdened by a capitalistic system that doesn't work for them. I've experienced much of what Anne talks about in this book: the desire to escape my hometown through college, no matter the cost; the lost of my love for various hobbies and artistic pursuits because I was pressured to monetized them; crushing student loan debt; the burden of juggling multiple minimum wage jobs; etc. And I'm better off than many of my peers! 

This book is a wake up call to make sure we participate in the democratic system in order to elect officials who will make sweeping changes to make work and living better.

Mariane Ferrantino 

A really, really good and hard read. We are all so burned out and no amount of “self-care” (which of course was co-opted by privileged white women from people of color) will alleviate the systemic issues. I feel like so much of this is common sense to the people living it, but somehow millennials still get a bad rap in the media, even though much of the media is made up of millennials now??? I appreciate that the author does not offer solutions other than “burn it all down.”

Halfway through (very belatedly) reading this ARC, I ordered a physical copy because I need to put this in my mom's hands to help her understand why me and my younger siblings' academic and post-academic lives have ended up the way they have. So much of this book concisely explained things I already instinctively understood but have never been able to put into words. Peterson provides historical context both for our parents' world and upbringing as well as for our own and clearly shows how that wider context affected so many of us on a personal level. I especially appreciated that Peterson makes a point of acknowledging the role that race and class have in exaserbating or ameliorating these effects. The popular conception of Millenials is very white middle-class, but that doesn't actually make up the entire population of our generation and the same pressures we are all subjected to apply differently based on an individual's position. I truly can't recommend this book enough.

Cola

Anyaconda

This was an interesting analysis to read through and I agree that Petersen was able to shine a light on some of the generational and societal issues.
However you can't go around blaming others. Nobody forces you to buy all the things you don't need, nobody forces you to spend thousands of dollars for a degree that might not even guarantee you a job and nobody forces you to live from paycheck to paycheck.
Each generation comes with their own unique problems and opportunities and I also believe that there'll always be a bit of misunderstanding and miscommunication between generations.
I would have loved to see some more solutions or ideas on how to change things.

Can't Even How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation

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