46 — Streaming midlife crises
I often ask myself how does a midlife crisis looks like nowadays.
Pop culture, growing up, expressed it with big outwardly gestures like cutting your bangs, shaving your head or leaving your job, selling all your belongings, and backpack through Asia or Antarctica until you hear your true calling.
Sex and the City established that these are topics of conversation for women to discuss amongst themselves. Do you have that kind of tight-knit group of gals in your life?
I don’t have a lot of women with whom I can speak about deep-life-altering-matters in person say, like, perimenopause or big identity shifts. I used to tho. When I lived in my hometown. I had a small but solid group of women with whom I interacted on a weekly basis in person over latte macchiatos or aperitivos. Since then, I’ve been moving countries on average every six to seven years making it increasingly difficult to have these deep conversations via text or call with the same group of women. Calling, that doesn’t happen very often (I might be just an old millennial who does-not-want-to-speak-over-the-phone-unless-necessary).
You’d think that six years in the same place is more than enough time to establish deep relationships, but let me break it to you, it’s not. Especially if you live in the north of Europe (Hey, what’s up Sweden!).
It takes time and patience - let’s be honest - like most things do.
Building friendships takes just as much effort as building a relationship with a partner and you have to be willing to invest the time and energy required to go from casual acquaintance to seasoned friend even more so when you are not a local.
That’s why, more often than not, we rely on the support of the women we see online to keep us together, connected, and entertained even if we don’t directly engage with them (ah, the magic of YouTube!)
Vlogs (or video logs) are an incredible tool for that connection. They are simple (in production), relatable, and provide you with a gentle invitation into a few bits and pieces of someone’s life with the creator (or subject) being both the protagonist and narrator.
There’s something soothing about hearing someone talk through their daily struggles, or watching them come up with a dinner plan. It brings solace into people’s hectic lives and provides different perspectives that otherwise we wouldn’t be exposed to.
I’ve mentioned this before (here – and – here), and I’ll say it again. I’ve loved watching vlogs, especially the early Casey Neistat times, and like me, many viewers, went alongside him, through the highs and lows of businesses, couples’ therapy, domestic moves, and anything else that he gently allowed us all to witness from his point of view.
What about women tho? Specifically the forty and fifty-year-olds. Not the thirty-somethings who are still figuring things out, but the ones who are in the midst of their midlife crises. The ones who are talking about perimenopause, divorces, hormonal imbalances, kids, or lack thereof.
I need to see content from those women that is not styling advice or makeup tips (although everyone loves a good no-makeup-makeup look).
I’d love to see content from the ones who have aging parents, who go to bed at 9.30 in the evening because they have a book to read, or from the ones who are humble enough to talk about career shifts as hard as they sound.
Is it that vlogs are for the young girlies who have lighter responsibilities and that older women are way too busy running lives with husbands, families, kids, businesses, aging parents, and menopause?
You might have the answers.
I don’t.
Oh, and if you know of such women, do let me know.
x
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