TikTok has a habit of rebranding everything. According to the app, you don't have a hangover; you're having a bad day in bed. You're not immature; you're just a 20-something girl. Now, you're not crossing a line and you're not daydreaming; you're just daydreaming. You are just "delusional". Short for delusional disorder, the clinical term turned cutesy buzzword might just be a new manifestation across platforms and beyond, meaning delulu culture might actually help you live the life of your dreams.
The #delulu hashtag has been viewed more than 2 billion times on TikTok, and after a glorified rebrand over the past few years, it's clear that users are undoubtedly gravitating towards all things unhinged. Under this label, users are sharing relatable mutual fantasies they have — like finding Taylor Swift Easter eggs in everything, or making up any excuse for your ex to block you. But TikTok is also known for turning legitimate psycho terms into overused internet terms (looking at you, toxic and gatekeeper), but "delulu" might not be such a bad thing after all.
Some say that becoming a "delulu" is a necessary part of their lives, the first step to fulfilling their every wish and achieving personal enlightenment. (Performance content itself is a gold mine on TikTok, with the hashtag garnering nearly 50 billion views.) According to Laura Chung, a performance expert and author of How to Manifest , TikTok’s latest viral Spreading the term can indeed inspire self-actualization.
View on TikTok
Experts say the most important part of manifesting is having the utmost confidence that whatever you want will somehow come true, and if that's considered delusional, then that's just showbiz, baby. "I've always believed that anything is possible and not knowing how things are going to happen is an illusion," she tells Bustle. "I do believe that people who are delusional end up creating the most beautiful things in the world."
Traditionally, delusions have been considered false beliefs or symptoms of legitimate mental illness. But Chung said the negative connotations of the word "delusion" and its subsequent rebranding as "delulu" online may also have subconscious gender overtones. This isn't the first time in history that gender has played a role in perceptions of belief - in the 19th and 20th centuries, women were diagnosed with "hysteria" for experiencing symptoms we now consider normal: shortness of breath, anxiety and general stress. Now, instead of being labeled hysterical, women may be heard to be delusional when in fact they are just confident.
"We live in a patriarchal society where mediocre white people have such high self-confidence and delusions."
"We live in a patriarchal society," Chung said, "and mediocre white people have such high self-confidence and delusions that when they don't have much room to grow, they expose themselves. They ask for a raise, they will ask for the job and they perform because they believe in themselves.”
Women are less likely to do all of these things, but with exposure to what is possible—seeing self-made female millionaires or successful executives, creators, and more online and in real life—than ever It is easier to believe that they can reach these heights. Seeing their delulu sisters take over FYP content definitely helps too. Maybe delusions aren't so unbelievable after all.
Of course, some delulu content is purely for fun and likes, but according to Chung, there are limits to performance. For example, much of the content under this tag includes users sharing what they perceive to be “delulu” logic to excuse a potential partner’s uninterested behavior. "[I see people saying,] 'I'm delusional. They like me so much. No, they don't," she said. "I think this kind of delusion is kind of harmful." In order for delusion to be an expression tool, your behavior must be supported by some self-awareness, Zhong said. Willful ignorance will not do you any good.
View on TikTok
Remember, you can only control yourself, and this performance works best when combined with action. If you want love, practice self-care and be ready to receive love. If you want to get your next big job, update your resume and treat every networking event as a networking opportunity. But never think that your greatness and achievements are limited. After all, everything monumental that happens probably started because someone was a little lost.
"Once, a delusional person said, 'I'm going to get on this ship and travel across the world. I don't know where I'm going. I have no navigation system, but I want to find whatever I'm looking for,'" Chung explain. "For better or worse, it was a success for them. So it's like, why don't you get delusional? Why don't you be more like, 'Yeah, this is possible'?"
source:
Laura Chung , performance expert and author of How to Manifest
