The source is this:
The earliest "source" of "involution" is a few pictures of top students in famous schools.
Some pictures of "involution" in the circle of friends are like this: some people are reading books on bicycles, some dormitory beds are full of books, and some even write papers on computers while riding bicycles. These photos were first circulated among the principals of Tsinghua Peking University.
Later, popular words such as "Tsinghua Wang Juan", that is, "while riding a bike while watching a computer" appeared in hot searches, and related facial expressions also appeared in many college students' social software.
Let's first understand the difference between involution and internal friction, which is easier to understand:
1, involution is an evolution to "inner", which is more and more sophisticated and complex. In fact, it is just the repetition of several fixed patterns, and there is no idea of jumping out of the pattern. Simply put, involution is a low-level complexity;
2, involution is not internal friction, and it does not necessarily reduce living standards. People who are caught in involution are likely to enjoy it;
Internal friction is an imminent crisis, and involution is a longer-term concern.
A short story about involution
There is a small town. There are many shoe stores in the town. These shoe stores open every morning 10, take a lunch break from noon 12 to 2 pm, and continue to operate from 2 pm to 6 pm. It is open for 5 days every Monday to Friday and closed on weekends.
In the hottest summer, the shoe store owner will close the store and go to the seaside in the south for a holiday; In the coldest winter, the shoe store owner will also close the store and go skiing in the mountains in the north.
Then one day, for some reason, the family moved from a big city to a small town and opened a shoe store. Although the town is small, it has a certain scale, and the balance between supply and demand of shoes will not be broken by adding a shoe store. Their shoe store opens at 7 o'clock every morning and doesn't rest at noon. It closes at night 1 1. They are also open on weekends and never go on holiday in summer and winter.
However, the town owners are not convinced. They follow the schedule of people in big cities, working 7 days a week and 0/6 hours a day. Their "diligence" has also been "rewarded": their business income has returned to its previous state.
So, what changes have taken place in town life at this time? Because the population of the town has not increased and the demand for shoes remains the same as before, the final operating income of each shoe store has not changed and will not increase. In other words, their working hours have become longer, but their income has not increased. This is the involution.