Moving from private shame to a collective vocabulary changes the math of dissent. When young people experience burnout or unemployment, they often blame themselves, viewing their struggles as personal failures. This internalizes the pressure. However, once they adopt shared terms to describe these conditions, the problem shifts from a personal defect to a structural reality.
This cognitive shift provides the scaffolding for mobilization. By naming shared frustrations—such as the exhaustion of 'involution' (neijuan) or the isolation of 'lying flat' (tangping)—youths find others who feel the same. This creates a sense of
