What's Your Fridge Cig?
a little something to take the edge off
One of my favourite terms to come out of the internet zeitgeist is fridge cig.
A fridge cig traditionally refers to a Diet Coke — canned, straight from the fridge. Gen Z’s version of a smoke break. However, the term has since expanded to include any vice you turn to during hard times (and good times) that you know is detrimental to your health. Alcohol, sugar, doom scrolling; whatever numbing behaviour is being substituted for the cigarette breaks of yore.
Rough day - fridge cig
Job sucks - fridge cig
Long weekend - fridge cig
Girls night - fridge cig
Spiralling into an existential depression - fridge cig
But why do we do this to ourselves?
Why do we do harmful things that we know are bad to cope with the hardships of the world? A few obvious answers come to mind. The short-term gratification of a tiny escape into fizziness. The emotional and physical rewards, the rush of sugary sweetness. The joy of impulsivity in making a bad decision at the first snap of the can.
Maybe this is just society’s way of normalizing bad habits. We all make wrong choices. Is this just course correcting the decision to show ourselves some grace?
Is it a rebellion? Ya, I know the fucking world is on fire, but what am I gonna do about it on Wednesday night… not much, so I’m gonna have a crisp Diet Coke, which I know is absolutely terrible for me, and enjoy the rest of my evening before I go back to the email factory in the morning.
A fridge cig to me is a harmless modern ritual of self-soothing, hovering just before the slide into numbness. We now have 24-hour access to a barrage of horrible news coming to us from across the world. It can appear to be never-ending at times. As a species, we have not yet developed the emotional and mental regulation to handle it. The only relief appears to be to avoid and to numb.
Don’t get me wrong, being complacent and burying your head in the sand is not what I’m advocating for here. We can’t turn away from the wrongs of the world. But sometimes you need a day off from fighting the good fight.
Some days you just need a fridge cig.