Take back your life – offline
- Wendy Mothata
Although young professional adults mostly live online today, thriving in real life is about intentionality, not rejecting technology.
For young adults entering the workforce today, the rules of career and life building have changed. Young professionals are stepping into a post-pandemic world where remote work, digital communication and online performance are the norm.
At the same time, their lives are punctuated by the rhythm of influencers, podcasts, fitness trends, lifestyle hacks and the ever-present glow of social media feeds.
In this always-on environment, how do young professionals take back their lives – offline?
Upwards with purpose
For many young professionals, thriving no longer means climbing the ladder. “Thriving for young professionals in the South African workspace is strongly tied to learning new competencies and achieving growth, whether that’s through promotion or salary progression,” says Dr Tinashe Chuchu, Senior Lecturer in Marketing in the Wits School of Business Sciences.
However, alongside this desire for upward mobility, he says, is the need for something deeper: purpose and connection.
“Feeling part of something bigger than oneself and wanting to see the team succeed, plays a major role in both performance and wellbeing,” he says.
However, the post-pandemic workplace has accelerated digital dependence, argues Chuchu. Although remote meetings, online collaboration and digital self-presentation may have strengthened skills like adaptability, communication and self-management, digital dependence has also blurred boundaries in ways that young professionals still struggle to navigate.
Then there is social media, the uninvited colleague in every workspace.
Virtual peer pressure
Chuchu says that young professionals spend more time on social media than on any other medium and because the content is peer created, it feels more credible and relatable. However, with credibility comes pressure from highly curated success stories, personal branding narratives and influencer hustle culture, creating the sense that everyone else is thriving, effortlessly.
“Social media has created an alternate universe of artificial success,” says Chuchu. “For early-career professionals, this illusion can lead to pressure and the feeling that they’re not progressing fast enough.”
For many young adults, this pressure is not abstract. It shows up as expectations that creep into everyday choices. Influencers and digital hustle culture are powerful precisely because they appear familiar, relatable and aspirational, explains Chuchu. “They help young professionals dream big but they also feed into comparison and the sense that you’re always behind.”
Aspirational edge
The digital world is also a tool for learning, perspective and staying informed.
Nolitha Garane, 32, is a Wits alumna, lawyer, wife and mother. She says that social media has helped her keep pace with the world in a way that supports her professional life and her sense of thriving. “It keeps me updated with current affairs and I am able to contribute meaningfully to my career,” she says.
For Garane, online content can also offer moments of encouragement when life feels stretched, reinforcing the idea that thriving can look different for different people. “I am sometimes encouraged when I come across a video or a picture that really changes my perspective or educates me,” she adds.
Her view highlights the tension at the heart of digital life for young professionals: the same platforms that inspire and inform can also distract, overwhelm and quietly erode boundaries that are essential for thriving.
Reclaiming life offline
With so much of life unfolding on screens, is a shift back to offline living likely and could that be a way for young professionals to protect their ability to thrive?
Chuchu is sceptical. “I’m not seeing a shift toward digital minimalism,” he says. “If anything, dependency on digital platforms is increasing. The addictive nature of online content makes it difficult for young professionals to step away.”
Still, small acts of resistance are emerging and they are often deeply personal choices that help young professionals reclaim the space that they need to thrive.
For Garane, taking life back offline is tied to presence, faith and simple routines that restore her wellbeing and support her ability to thrive across her different roles. She is honest about the difficulty of doing all this consistently – time is a challenge.
Avoiding burnout
The balancing act between career, wellbeing, relationships and everyday life is familiar to many young professionals, especially those trying to thrive without burning out.
“Research focusing on working smarter rather than harder offers useful guidance for designing early careers that support thriving rather than burnout,” says Chuchu.
Real life communities
For Ndavhe Tshivhase, a Wits BSc Computer Science alumnus, thriving offline means building habits and connections that help him flourish. As a software developer, technology is unavoidable but after hours, he is less online attached, although he dabbles.
“Through social media, I’ve seen many people my age trying out new ways to stay active. More importantly, they have formed new communities,” he says. “I decided to join one of those communities and it was the best decision that I have ever made.” Now he runs three times a week and has an ambitious goal that requires stamina, discipline – and time offline.
Top tips for young professionals to thrive
Ndavhe Tshivhase, a software developer, and Nolitha Garane, a lawyer – both Wits alumni – and Professor Tinashe Chuchu, Senior Lecturer in the Wits School of Business Sciences, have various strategies to help young professionals curb digital overwhelm and to thrive in the real world:
- Manage expectations – yours and others
- Give yourself permission to delay engagement
- Turn off or limit notifications, if only temporarily
- Set boundaries – if work demands intensify, avoid social media distractions
- Curate your feed for self-protection - unfollow/unfriend toxic topics and people
- Reintroduce daily offline habits and activities, like exercise and books
- Prioritise in-person interactions
- Take an occasional digital detox
- Wendy Mothata is Social Media Officer at Wits University.
- This article first appeared in?CURIOS.TY,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 20thissue, themed #Thrive, which explores what it truly means to flourish — across a lifespan, within communities, and on and with our planet.
- This feature is part of a series on what is required for us to thrive at each stage throughout our lives. Also read: