What is the current state of young people across all social classes?

Ever since Teacher Ma started working, the filter through which I see the world has shattered.
Passing by a milk tea shop, I see the staff mechanically shaking tea and legs swollen after standing for 10 hours.
The mall sales assistants have to wear makeup and stand in high heels all day.
The hotpot restaurant waiters always top the step count chart, yet they can’t walk more than 30 meters inside the store.
Every worker is silently running a marathon, delivery riders racing on the road, counting seconds.
The rhythm of factory assembly lines is set by machines.
Neck pain and dry eyes have become standard in office buildings,
Injured teachers’ hoarse throats still carry unfinished parent-teacher communication.
Even biological clocks are alienated into productivity, waking up startled in the middle of the night.
The first thought is often: how do I get to work tomorrow?
Suddenly, I understand the true operation of this society.
The so-called city nightscape
is just countless human-shaped batteries around me discharging simultaneously.
My friends and I, after a few years in society, clearly feel that our spirits have been exploited, exhausted, numb, with no desires or pursuits.
Going to work just to get through the weekend, no mood for hobbies, unable to focus when reading a book, lying around scrolling short videos on the phone.
We say we love money, but we’re not willing to be ruthless about earning it, drifting aimlessly, losing all curiosity and desire to share.
During student days, everyone often talked about literature, movies, travel, music, love; later, the topics shrank to eating, overtime, making money, family—living like hollow shells.
Jia Zhangke wrote, “Life at this point no longer has miracles; what remains is a mundane life of struggling against time.”
For most of us, there are too many realities to sort out, rapid time, an ordinary self.
I start to become a screw in society, fuel for the era, understanding and becoming the boring person I once rejected as a child.
No longer thinking about whether something is meaningful or high-level, just eating when hungry, playing cards, drinking alcohol—like boiling frogs in warm water. I finally abandoned illusions and accepted this dull life.
I do many things just to dispel the weariness of life.