Emerging from existential nihilism, absurdism exclaims that there is no meaning to life, as coined by Kierkegaard, to which Albert Camus’s existentialst perspective exclaims, there are two choices: to kill oneself or find one’s own meaning. While these premises originally predicated God, meaning(lessness) has since been considered beyond scopes of religion and into everyday life. Absurdism comes from the idea that meaninglessness provides some aspect of liberation, providing people with an avenue to redefine any situation within the absurdist framework which is, essentially, limitless.

Absurdism can be found within the broad spectrum of art. The avant-garde and the experimental are huge components of modern art, theater, and music, growing incredibly mainstream following the death and destruction of World War II which left the world devastated and depressed. In part, the purpose was to normalize meaninglessness. Theater Critic Martin Esslin wrote:

In understanding that there was no point, the prospect would become less bleak and people would realize that some sort of enjoyment would have to be found in the interim before death.

Absurdism hinges upon rebellion and subversion and is now, in the modern era, inevitable.

The internet is its own culture, which is simultaneously always communicating and living within the real world. The internet has made data transmission almost instantaneous, lending to an oversaturation of content and subsequent record turnover of information. Overconsumption has allowed fads to come and go faster than ever, as shown by the fast fashion, MTX (microtransactions) dominant game, and even ready-made food industries. In the twenty-first century economy, it is most profitable to provide a multitude of cheap goods and services that are highly consumable and easily accessible—prioritizing the high quantity of consumption rather than the quality of it. This is all due to the ease of access on the internet to both buy and sell items, creating a market of both high saturation and high turnover.

From a consumption perspective, once content is on the internet, often it remains forever, shared across social media platforms incredibly quickly. Content is consumable, but merely from a satisfaction point of view, meaning that once a piece of content exists it will likely be enjoyed to its fullest potential only for a brief time. Point blank, the comedic value eventually becomes stale. Absurdism, in turn, is used with the express purpose of being rebellious, counter-culture, trendy, new, eye-catching, etc; it is all to stand out and make things less boring.

However, this is merely the surface, and from a mental health perspective, Gen Z, one of the most chronically-online generations, has the highest reported rates of mental illness of all time. Understanding these high rates of mental illness is an investigation of this project, but in brief, several key problems contribute to this higher rate of mental illness.

(1) As the first generation to grow up alongside the internet, constant information and data consumption do not allow any time or space for people to remove themselves from the information cycle. (2) Tragic world events are sensationalized but heavily normalized, leading to a desensitization of horrific information that still has a dramatic impact on mental health. Likewise, harassment and other personal matters are constantly present on the internet; there is little thing as privacy. (3) Both environmental and economic outlooks are incredibly bleak among younger generations. Although most data focus on Millennials (mainly because about half of Generation Z is still under the age of 18) there is a downward trend in both regards, meaning that Generation Z and Alpha have even bleaker world outlooks.

Absurdism, as a result, seems to be a logical conclusion for both Gen Z and the modern world as a whole, making its way into almost every aspect of life: