“What a privilege it is to run in the rain. What a privilege it is to have a house that I need to clean.” Social media is often criticized for being a toxic space, but an emerging trend is combating negativity with gratitude.
Posts titled “What a Privilege” include everything from pictures of cozy beds (What a Privilege to be Exhausted after a Long Day) to travel videos (What a Privilege to Carry a Heavy Bag) to stovetops (What a Privilege). privilege that it is to think about what to make for dinner every day) have emerged on Instagram and TikTok.
The trend has not yet reached the stratospheric heights of 2014. hashtag blessed or 2020 Phase “I am grateful for…”but it is gaining traction online with some posts attracting more than 200,000 likes. Welcome to gratitude 2.0. The trend spans mundane events like commuting (What a privilege it is to complain about going to an office) to more luxurious experiences like purchasing a designer bag (What a privilege it is to choose).
“It combines self-satisfaction and humblebragging, perhaps covert gloating, in most cases un-ironically, in a way that might seem cloying, especially to some cynical UK viewers, but the phrase has been circulating in American usage for some time,” said Tony Thorne, lexicographer and director of the slang and new languages archive at King’s College London. “I think it may have originally arisen from exaggerated expressions of gratitude and thankfulness by American evangelicals and potential lifestyle influencers, where ‘grateful’ might be considered too mundane.”
Rukiat Ashawe, junior strategist at London-based agency The Digital Fairy, believes this type of gratitude resonates best when championing the monotonous elements of everyday life. “People online prefer to show the highlights of their lives,” he said. “This can lead to a warped sense of reality – and oneself – against which gratitude content actively works because it anchors people. It takes them out of the virtual reality that social media creates and into the real world.”
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So, is the Internet changing the meaning of the word privilege? “I don’t think TikTok really changes the essential meaning of the word, but rather turns it into more powerful triggers or symbols, perhaps with added nuances,” Thorne said. “That’s how keywords work, like buzzwords before them, tapping into a vibe, an aesthetic, or a set of attitudes.”