Between going to work and burning incense, this generation of young people chooses to "go to night school"

What would you choose to do after get off work? Lying at home, hanging out with friends, working out, or... Recently, a new lifestyle is becoming popular among young people.

Attend night school.

When you hear this word, do you feel as if you have traveled through time and space in a period drama? However, the current "night school" is not about learning cultural knowledge, but more like a plus version of the interest classes when you were a child, learning interest courses such as painting, guqin, makeup, pottery, calligraphy, etc.

Evening school course in Beijing

The "night school" first emerged in Shanghai and was opened by the Shanghai People's Art Museum. Many of the teachers who taught the courses were well-known "big shots" in the industry. Not only that, the price of the course is also very friendly, 500 yuan for 12 classes. It is said that when the autumn class of the night school started, 12 courses were snapped up within 60 seconds, and at the peak, more than 650,000 people were online to take the course at the same time.

After the Shanghai night school became popular, many netizens expressed their envy while trying to find night schools in their own cities, hoping that they could be "promoted nationwide":

Image source: Weibo screenshot

Isn’t it a bit surprising that young people who usually shout “go home and collapse” are rushing to attend night school?

In fact, this is their "self-healing" by returning to nature.

No utilitarianism, no one is forced

Night school is a "useless use"

A post on Xiaohongshu asked: "Were there any hobbies or interests that were suppressed by your parents when you were a child?"

The poster said that when she was a child, she wanted to learn piano very much. She could play a simple music sheet by listening to a song without having learned it before. She often imagined herself playing the piano on her desk. But when she mentioned this to her father carefully, her father said, "You still want to learn piano? Don't dream about it. Just study hard."

Her experience resonated with many people in the comment section:

"Whenever I wanted to dance to keep fit, my dad would laugh at me and call me sick."

"I like painting very much. I drew two beautiful paintings before. When I was admiring them, my mother passed by and said quietly: 'If you have this time, you might as well do more test papers.'"

…

In addition to being "rejected", there are many "arrangements":

Whether it is taking English classes, Olympiad classes, or even learning a musical instrument, when parents make these decisions for their children, there is more or less some pressure of "wanting their sons to become successful" or "wanting their daughters to become outstanding". Intentionally or unintentionally, it includes the utilitarianism of "hoping that it will come in handy at some point". Not many parents completely comply with their children's interests.

Between this "rejection" and "welcome", I don't know how many dreams have been buried.

Finally, when I grew up and was able to make decisions for my own life, night school appeared. For only 500 yuan, I could find my pure interests and happiness again.

You don’t need to ask it “what’s the use”, it is “useless use”.

It's really hard not to be moved.

Ceramics evening class. Image courtesy: Yang Yaping

Aristotle, a famous ancient Greek thinker, believed that happiness is a combination of pleasure and virtue.

According to the happiness formula proposed by Aristotle, psychologists Ryan and Deci divide happiness into two categories: one is the traditional subjective happiness that focuses on pleasure and comfort, and the other is the psychological happiness that focuses on meaning and self-realization. Research clearly shows that there is a connection between leisure and happiness, especially between creative and self-expressive leisure activities and psychological happiness.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a famous American psychologist and the originator of the concept of "flow", believes that in many activities of daily life, our heart, will, and mind are in a state of separation, or even mutually resisting, that is, what we want to do, what we should do, and what we are doing are not the same thing. However, in order to experience flow, we must integrate our heart, will, and mind to create a flow state where the heart follows the flow and the body and mind are united.

In other words, if what you are doing is something you are interested in and you are willing to devote your mind to, this kind of voluntary and enjoyable activity is the ticket to the flow experience. When this activity is challenging, has clear goals, can get immediate feedback or explore new things, people can gradually enter a state of no distractions and smoothly enter the state of flow.

Moreover, compared with luxurious leisure activities such as yachting, parties, and socializing at dinner parties, more active leisure activities such as gardening, handicrafts, creation, and socializing, which can utilize one's skills or challenge oneself without overwhelming oneself, can provide people with much more flow experiences.

Image source: pixabay

This is exactly the case with night school courses. Whether it is the more popular dance and music, or the more niche woodworking, weaving, and tie-dyeing, these are all creative and expressive leisure activities. In the process of learning and practicing, you need to constantly set personal goals, control external conditions and focus on the present in order to achieve the final results.

This process can also help us effectively resist self-destructive behaviors such as aimlessly watching videos, eating and drinking without restraint, and shopping crazily until our wallets are empty.

Young people, the neglected "loneliest group"

In people's stereotypes, the elderly are the loneliest group because they have experienced life events such as children leaving their original families and retiring from their work groups. But in fact, the "honor" of the loneliest group belongs to teenagers and young adults. Surveys and studies have found that loneliness is common among college students and young people. For freshmen, participating in extracurricular activities is associated with lower levels of loneliness.

Social psychologist David Myers once said: "If depression is like a cold in the category of psychological disorders, then loneliness can be considered a headache." Long-term loneliness not only affects people's sleep quality and reduces the function of the immune system, it is also a predictor of many diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, increases life stress, and in severe cases may even lead to more suicidal behaviors.

In this fast-paced era, powerful Internet social networking has gradually replaced face-to-face offline social networking, which can easily lead to the situation that you may have a huge social network, but the relationship is limited to liking posts on your Moments, and you still cannot escape loneliness.

Image source: pixabay

Only when socializing face to face will the "present molecule" brain circuits involved in experiences happening here and now be activated, secreting neurotransmitters including serotonin, oxytocin, endorphins and endocannabinoids that can bring a sense of intimacy and connection, allowing you to focus on the present, enjoy the present, connect with others, dispel loneliness, and gain a sense of satisfaction.

When a group of young people gather in a night school classroom because of common interests, an invisible circle of companions will slowly be built, and a strong companionship magnetic field will gradually expand; when everyone works together and learns together for a common goal, the common experience develops into common creative activities and results, which will make everyone have a stronger resonance and sense of identity, which will then be transformed into a common language, thereby achieving the establishment of relationships and gaining social connections. If you are lucky, you may also gain sincere friendships and intimate love~

Regaining the “anchor” of life

Going to night school is actually a kind of attitude towards life.

Life has many realities and frustrations, but it also gives us many choices. Living and working step by step on the established track is the tenacity of young people to face reality and frustration, while the freedom to choose night school after get off work is the perseverance of young people to explore new areas and expand their control over life.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

Martin Seligman, the father of positive psychology, found from animal electric shock experiments that when animals believe that whether the electric shock stops or not has nothing to do with their reaction, it will hinder their survival behavior and eventually produce learned helplessness. Therefore, Seligman proposed the famous theory of learned helplessness: when bad things happen, those who feel that they can't change their predicament by doing anything will often fall into a psychological helpless situation. In other words, helplessness is learned.

However, 50 years after the theory of learned helplessness was proposed, neuroscientist Steve Mayer rewrote the theory: helplessness is not learned, but the default reaction of some mammals to adverse events, just like the body feels cold when the temperature drops. At the same time, Steve Mayer also discovered a brain circuit that overcomes helplessness, that is, learning to control, just like you always have a thick cotton jacket in your closet. Even if the temperature drops suddenly without warning, you can successfully avoid the default reaction of helplessness because you know that you have a cotton jacket in your closet and can wear it at any time.

In other words, it is a natural reaction to want to escape and give up when encountering difficulties, but a sense of control can overcome this instinct. If you have a sense of control over life, events, and things, then no matter how big the difficulties are, you will not suffer from learned helplessness. And the most exciting thing is that a sense of control can be learned!

Exploring the unknown world is actually expanding one's control: trying to control external risks, trying to control new things, trying to control new skills. When exploration receives positive feedback, people will expand the scope of exploration, thereby expanding their control. The sense of control itself can bring positive emotions, which forms a spiral of positive feedback, which may bring more success, a greater sense of control, and more adventure.

Although it is still difficult for us to say whether "night school" is just a fad, and some night schools organized by individuals have started to launch more expensive "upgraded versions" after becoming popular, turning night school into a business, but in fact, for young people, night school is more like a reference and imagination -

There is a space where people can focus on themselves without being judged by the outside world.

References

[1] David Myers, Social Psychology (11th edition)

[2] Martin Seligman, The Autobiography of Martin Seligman

[3] Flow + Finding Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

[4] Practical Youth Psychology (11th Edition) by Wayne Weeden et al.

[5] “The Practice of Art Therapy for Mental Rehabilitation” by Chen Jindong & Yan Hu

[6]Sinikka Hannele Pöllänen&Marja Katriina Weissmann-Hanski(2020).Hand-madewell-beingTextilecraftsasasourceofeudaimonicwell-being.JournalofLeisureResearch,5(1),348-365

[7]VijaB.Lusebrink(2004).ArtTherapyandtheBrain:AnAttempttoUnderstandtheUnderlyingProcessesofArtExpressioninTherapy.JournaloftheAmericanArtTherapyAssociation,21(3)pp.125-135

[8]RachaelLee&Arttherapyforthepreventionofcognitivedecline.TheArtsinPsychotherapy,64,20-25

Author: Su Jing, National Level 2 Psychological Counselor

Review | Fan Chunlei Associate Researcher, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences