I Would Be Doing This Anyway

Currency

by Jia Tolentino

A razor-sharp short story about anonymity, mutual deception, and the perils of overexposure—debut fiction by Jia Tolentino, the New York Times bestselling author of Trick Mirror.

With the pandemic looming, a listless social media editor accepts a job working for her former college friend Seraphina. A popular Instagram influencer, the subject of obsessive message-board surveillance, and a newly minted Karen of the Day, Seraphina is living out 2020 in the luxury of her “ultimate self-quarantine.” As the year escalates into upheaval and chaos, both women try, in increasingly secretive and complicated ways, to maintain the upper hand.

Jia Tolentino’s I Would Be Doing This Anyway is part of Currency, a compounding collection of stories about wealth, class, competition, and collapse. If time is money, deposit here with interest. Read or listen in a single sitting.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Audiobook, Novella, Amazon, Dystopia

27 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 25, 2021

Reviews

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set initially in the real-world pandemic but ultimately veering into slightly more dystopian territory, I Would Be Doing This Anyway follows a broke social media manager as she reconnects with her college classmate, who has become a well-known influencer. The story dissects the dishonest codependency between the two women, skewering the narrator as effectively as her foil, with plenty of keen observations about identity as it is performed and interpreted online. Tolentino writes so snappily about everything – seems to have the gift of making sentences no longer than they need to be for you to glean everything important about a character or a moment – with just the right amount of acerbity. My favourite essay in Trick Mirror was the one that felt like it would work as a short story (‘Reality TV Me’, which I think about often), and this story is also great, and I hope she writes more fiction.

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[Julie Ehlers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I'm a fan of Jia Tolentino's essays in the New Yorker and her collection Trick Mirror, I wasn't sure what to expect from a piece of fiction by her. But this was great! It was very up-to-the-minute but the characters still felt genuine, and I couldn't wait to find out what happened next. My only complaint: I Would Be Doing This Anyway takes place in the summer and fall of 2020, which was a fairly dystopian time in the U.S., but Tolentino ratcheted things up with a fictionalized version of dystopia that felt totally unnecessary and was a distraction from the story she'd built up to that point. Still, I really enjoyed this and I hope we'll be seeing more fiction from Tolentino in the future.

[Obsidian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will never understand Instagram influencers. This is a really good look at one as well as it plays into an alternate reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thankfully some of the events in this short story did not occur in real life. I can’t even imagine.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely short story about the perils of influencer culture during a viral pandemic.

[Becks! · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Kira FlowerChild · Rating 3 out of 5]

I happened across this story on Goodreads and saw that I had marked it as "read." I have absolutely no memory of reading this, and since it is only 21 pages long, I downloaded it and reread it. I still have absolutely no memory of reading this before, even though the Kindle version showed that I had read it all the way to the end.

I am thinking maybe I should take Trump's cognitive test. 😉 I could consider excuses like I read this in March 2021, at the height of the pandemic, but I think I would have remembered a name like "Seraphina," one of the main characters in the story. To be honest, the story is somewhat dull and I didn't find the characters sympathetic at all. I would rate it a 2.5 rounded up to 3. But still... *shakes head*

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pandemic fiction was kind of an inevitable thing in this decade and something my writer brain started thinking about pretty early on in 2020. How to do it and not come off completely cringe-y? I suppose with some distance from the worst days of COVID-19, stories that take place during that time become more readable...the past being more palatable when it's the past and all.

Regardless, I will pretty much go wherever Jia Tolentino wants to take me, and this story on influencer culture during the ravages of a pandemic is a cool fictional cousin to Trick Mirror, which I loved. There is a bit of a curve ball when the story veers off into an alternate timeline of events that are far more dystopian than what actually happened during COVID, and while not necessary, it was perhaps an ominous reminder? Of what could have been? It was a distraction more than halfway through the story, but maybe the inclusion of such fictions to create distance from real events makes COVID-adjacent fiction more digestible.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

“How many people like me were out there, fingertips hovering above nothing?”

If you loved Such A Fun Age, and even if you haven’t read it yet, read this short story! It deals with similar issues but in the form of performative allyship and activism on social media (and also all the other superficial stuff that comes along with social media and overexposure too). It’s set in 2020 and a must read for anyone who found themselves quarantine scrolling... aka all of us.

[Judith Vives · Rating 5 out of 5]

ficción de jia tolentino!!!!!! necesito más!!!!

me lo leí anoche de una sentada en un momento de insomnio porque me despertó el pedro ladrando y me encantó. pandemia, cultura influencer, activismo performativo, una línea temporal de base real pero que se va deformando a algo cada vez más distópico. y lo peor es que con varias cosas tuve que decirme "¿espérate, esto pasó de verdad?" y es que los estadounidenses están tan locos que ya te esperas cualquier cosa. 100% recommend (y obviamente trick mirror, su libro de ensayos, es lo más!)

[izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jia Tolentino drop your Blogsnark username

[✨ Anna ✨ | ReadAllNight · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting inspection of the on-line culture that has evolved to bring us the "influencer."

Well written, striking the right note that makes it easy to think of it as nonfiction--the pandemic details were perfect.

Between my age and some ignorance of this digital world, I had to take the time to look up a term trying to grasp the details of the situation.

It reveals the online world to be as disgusting as it is.

I'm not sure I understood the twist. It seemed clever. I might reread it to see.

[Nursebookie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this amazing short story about two women, social media fame, and friendship in the pandemic quarantine world.

Such a brilliant story telling with very quirky characters who are trying to up each other to the very end.

[Larissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I had read this back in 2021! Really enjoyable short story that perfectly encapsulated the pandemic whilst also moving it into a fictionalised parallel reality of sorts. Ultimately it was about influencer culture and how that came under scrutiny during the pandemic and with BLM and other movements. It also was just really reminiscent of the kind of hopelessness of days in lockdown where time is still moving forward but it simultaneously appears to stand still.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Influencer

Seraphina is an influencer and her friend from college lost her roommates and can no longer afford the apartment they rented. The narrator is the friend and we find out that she is probably not white, but nothing about her is ever solid other than she feels poor next to Seraphina.

This is the story of these two women living through the pandemic, which is a different and yet same pandemic we all lived through, though some of the history is different. The writing isn’t bad, and maybe that’s what being an influencer is like, but it’s boring. Two and a half stars rounded up to three.

[Helen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Quite literally a “sign of the times”. A dystopian short about current events and the modern “influencer culture.

[Victoria McIntyre · Rating 2 out of 5]

Always look forward to reading her work in the New Yorker, but the themes here just felt too overdone. Nothing new.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my favourite story from the "Currency" collection.

This is a whip-smart story set in the present day based around a jaded social media manager who ends up working for a former classmate, now a huge influencer. Message forums, performative activism and pandemic fatigue come together to weave a slightly dystopian tale of how you really can't believe what you read online.
I loved this writing style, loved the way the story flowed, and bought the author's collection of non-fiction short stories Trick Mirror immediately after finishing this one. I hope she writes more fiction.

Highly Recommended.

[Aoife Cassidy McM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sensational. Here’s a story about the internet I can get behind. A razor-sharp take on influencer culture combined with a dystopian version of the pandemic. Really enjoying the short stories from this collection (Currency). Love Jia Tolentino’s writing.

[Steffy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The twist at the end was shockingly surprising but so good!

[not real · Rating 3 out of 5]

short story exposing influencer culture, performative activism, and anonymous spectatorship in digital spaces during the pandemic

[Josie Rushin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fictional short story. I had high hopes considering how much I loved her collection of essays and was interested to see how her writing style translated into fiction. I was cautious reading that the setting was during the Covid lockdown however I liked how it was secondary to the plot and provided an explanation (somewhat) for the bitchy behaviour. I don’t usually like books about bitchy or catty women but this made it seem calculated and raised awareness of how women will find anything to bring each other down as the patriarchy encourages women to compete against one another. It’s a story about survival and the timing seems fitting (at least in my life) as people are beginning to move on but simultaneously discuss the reality of the impacts of the pandemic particularly in regards to lockdowns. I look forward to reading more fictional work by this author.

[Thais C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I confess I wasn’t really looking forward to reading any story that takes places in these crazy (I mean, awful) pandemic times. But I decided to read this one because I tend to like everything Jia Tolentino writes, and also, it’s a short story.
‘I Would Be Doing This Anyway’ is so relatable.
The feeling now is the same as when I finished reading ‘Trick Mirror’: can’t wait for more of Jia’s stories (fiction or non-fiction).

[Shikha · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I Would Be Doing This Anyway" is a compelling exploration of contemporary life and the complexities of navigating our increasingly interconnected world. Jia Tolentino's insightful essays challenge societal norms and provide a fresh perspective on important issues. This book is a must-read for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding of modern culture and the intricacies of the human experience.

[Emmie Must · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny, I loved hating Seraphina

[Isabel Isik · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a person dabbling around social media myself, I found this book extremely real.

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Influencers claiming marginalization to stay relevant and relatable is the new celebrities spelling out "We're all in this together" w their yachts during the pandemic fr💀

[Maria do Socorro Baptista · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma pequena narrativa distópica, bem pensada nesses tempos de pandemia e notícias distorcidas nas redes sociais. Adorei.

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jia’s nonfiction in fiction form.

[Kristine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is so of-the-moment that I felt like I was reading it as it was unfolding live IRL. It's a creative and realistic (but still imaginative and critical) look at how influencers have been reacting (or not) to ~these times~.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

jia tolentino's writing is so sharp. moody short story that starts out IRL 2020 pandemic and veers into a dystopian alternate reality, but that's not really the point. it's about influencer culture and friendship and loneliness and performative living and anyways i really liked it. i didnt see the teeny tiny twist at the end coming, but i'm really bad at anticipating things like that.