Am I Depressed or Just Spoiled?
Written by
Victoria Voigt
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I've been thinking both for a few years now and finally decided it’s time to put it into words — part reason, part pop science, and a bit of personal curiosity. Some of you might find this helpful, especially those living in big cities, surrounded by noise, ambition, and unfathomable entitlement.
I know that what you see on social media is SPOILED, not DEPRESSED, so let me break it for you.
First, I have to admit: I was genuinely amused by ChatGPT’s answer to my headline. In short, it suggests that if your symptoms of depression last fewer than two weeks, you’re probably just... spoiled. If you don’t believe me, here’s the proof:
Generation Zero
One of the quieter emergencies my generation is facing isn’t just a mental health crisis, but sorry to say — it’s an intellectual one. The Latin word intellectus means “perceiving,” as in grasping the world around us on a cognitive and interactive level.
Despite being the most digitally connected and open-sourced cohort in human history, many of us feel cognitively stagnant and impotent. Combine that with the blinding fog of superficiality, disinformation, and photo filters on social media, and you get a generation of insecure flâneurs, wandering after school between McDonald’s and Sephora instead of pursuing passions or improving a skill they love.
But to do that, you first have to know what you love. And that’s where the fog really sets in. We’re so mentally clouded we can't reach the core of what we are wired to. Offline.
Aura and Intellectual Capital
What once was considered ordinary character — thoughtfulness, curiosity, self-awareness — is now rare enough to be considered a digital currency. Today, it’s called aura. The word comes from Latin, meaning “air,” “breeze,” or “breath of wind.” Something invisible but perceptible. A gentle presence.
In the digital world, aura has morphed to describe mood, persona, atmosphere, and spiritual energy. To “have aura” today means to seem cool, mysteriously charismatic — often based on appearance, body language, or an intriguing online persona. It’s not necessarily tied to substance or intellect, but it is directly tied to influence.
I find the metaphor of Gen Z’s intellect being like air: invisible and almost unfelt, painfully amusing.
Here’s an example: a guy called Ethan on Everything tried to explain “aura” using a popularity tier list from history. But in my opinion, it misses the mark. The examples are outdated and rooted in historical figures (all men) whose violence and extremism have little in common with the peaceful, privileged upbringing of today’s Gen Z. I doubt most of those using the word aura today even know these men’s names, much less their history.
Who Had the Most "Aura" in History? Part 1 (Tier List)
Symptoms of the Intellectual Decline
We’re ideating less, building less, imagining less. We consume everything the algorithm feeds us — content, commentary, wellness rituals — yet produce very little of value. Your algorithm feeds you with what it thinks resonates and aligns with you. That often is a replica: look up social media trend replayers, it gets the most screen time in the whole Internet. The real crisis isn’t in projection, but in production.
Here’s my simple equation:
The less you produce intellectually, the poorer your understanding of the world and its people.
The poorer that understanding, the easier it is for others to marginalize, oppress, or ignore you.
And that makes you more vulnerable to depression.
Intellect is your mind’s capacity and your self-awareness backed by consistent skill-building. One competency isn’t enough. What if you lose it? You need more than one competency and constant rediscovering to secure your future.
In the global world, most things are uncontrollable, like the weather or geopolitics (Who would have thought that in the mid of 2025, Trump would be bombing Iran?) but the more we learn, the more equipped we are to respond. Knowledge becomes a protection blanket.
I studied in a sports school, and did sports full-time the first 15 years of my life and I certainly didn’t become a professional athlete. Did I lose anything? I don’t think so, but my biggest take out is: You can’t just focus on athletics. Break a leg, and your physical strength becomes irrelevant. But your intellect, knowledge? That’s unbreakable. It evolves. It's what makes you valuable, remembered, and resilient.
As we lean further into a robotics, and data-driven future, what happens if we aren’t intellectually capable of contributing anymore? Remember, data centers depend on the data we create. If we stop producing meaningful input, the output quality collapses. We enter a loop of recycling, not upcycling ideas, because it’s no longer personal.
Forecasts already warn that future generations may lack scientific brainpower. This isn’t a fluke, it’s the consequence of a privileged, under-educated society.
According to MIT, future generations of ChatGPT users might be the least cognitively productive generation in modern history.
Source 👉 Your Brain on ChatGPT – MIT
More Consumers, Fewer Cons
This may sound like an anecdote from Rich Dad, Poor Dad: after I returned from a trip to the U.S., I complained to my father about overpopulation. I said: “Dad, I think the world has too many of us already”.
He said, “Victoria, think of it as an opportunity. More people means more potential users for your products.”
He’s an economist. And technically, he’s right.
So here’s the real question: How do we make the population more valuable? Or do we want a world filled with spoiled, depressed and unaware consumers? Or one made up of highly aware, intellectually contributing humans?
Because if we lose the ability to contribute meaningfully, a very small group of focused, non-procrastinating minds, the top 0.01% will build the tech that eventually replaces or outcompetes us. Forever.
Illusion of Happiness
Depression often stems from not serving society — from a lack of meaningful contribution and deep emotional connection. The best things in life really are free. And they cannot be purchased.
This is personal. But it’s also generational. Teen suicide rates are at a historic high. Mental health headlines dominate front pages globally.
We long for what our parents had — simplicity, adventure, community. Despite having more economically and technologically, we want to merge their past with our present.
Consumption is a form of depression — even if the charts don’t call it that.
Any addiction is a symptom of disconnection.
Any disconnection is a potential source of depression.
We say life is a journey. But in therapy and pop culture, that journey is reduced to a single goal: happiness. That’s misleading.
Oprah, my childhood heroine, often asked her guests: “What do you want in life?” They’d say, “To be happy.” But when she followed up — “What makes you happy?” — few had a solid answer.
Maybe the issue isn’t just emotional. It’s epistemological. We know we’re missing something — but we don’t know what it is. The minimalist slogan “You are enough” doesn’t motivate intellectual growth.
Problems That Aren’t Problems
By “spoiled,” I mean unfamiliar with true pain. Everyone has a different threshold, sure — but that threshold is only defined by the limits we’ve already pushed.
As a mother of two, I thought I understood pain. Until I gave birth naturally — once with epidural, once without. Then I really met my threshold.
So what’s real pain, and what’s imagined? Only experience can show us. And reality is always subjective.
A Cultural Addiction
“Procrastination has become aesthetic,” says Berlin-based strategist Layla Santiago. “It’s curated online. We post about burnout and avoidance, and it becomes a form of community therapy. But it’s also enabling.”
Yes, it’s human to feel. And it’s a privilege to share that feeling online. If you have the time, energy, and capacity to complain publicly, you might not be doing that badly.
The internet is split between glamor and rawness. The more we reveal, the better for fame. But is it better for us?
I’ve told political clients for years: less airtime, fewer regrets. The more you speak, the higher the risk of going viral for all the wrong reasons. Algorithms reward bloopers, not wisdom.
Indeed, TikTok trends like #delulu (delusional optimism) and #bedrot (lying in bed as protest or depression) turn avoidance into identity. It's comforting, even relatable — but also potentially dangerous.
This isn’t about dismissing mental health. Depression is real. Anxiety is real. But our obsession with naming every discomfort and calling it pathology might be… medicalizing ordinary struggle.
The Real Cure
We weren’t born to be endlessly comfortable. Nor endlessly happy.
We were born — I believe — to serve, connect, create.
That is the most natural, free medication there is.
So maybe the self-discovery journey isn’t about maximizing pleasure or eliminating pain.
Maybe it’s about finding purpose within the struggle.
And instead of asking, “Am I depressed or just spoiled?”, maybe we should ask:
“What am I doing with the discomfort I feel?”
Because that’s where growth begins.
Not in the diagnosis — but in the response.
There’s a phantom in labeling — much like in Phantom, the programming language — simple, elusive, and rigid. A script that leaves little room for flexibility or surprise.
So no, I’m not spoiled. And I’m not depressed.
I’m in my 20s, with two little humans at home, simply searching for my true self and it can feel like a bumpy road most of the time.
And maybe that path was never meant to have a destination — except, perhaps, natural death.