The lying flat movement, global youth, and globality: a case of collective reading on Reddit

Abstract

ABSTRACT Youth withdrawal or ‘stagnant youth’ – such as hikikomori in Japan, NEET in Europe, and the lying flat movement in China – has been widely observed in recent decades. Seen as a culture- or geography-based and discrete phenomenon, however, its global connections across times and spaces are overlooked. Through the lens of globality or global consciousness of connectivity, this article explores how a news report on China’s lying flat movement was discussed by global youth on Reddit, an online idea exchange platform, and how this collective reading event has enabled their senses of transplanetary connectivity and generational solidarity. I argue that consciousness of connectivity, especially from the perspectives of those who are habitually peripheralized, can function as an important entry point to better understanding the shared predicaments, as well as potentials, of young people who feel stuck or ‘out of place and pace’ at the current stage of contemporary globalization.