Wellness is a big topic online. When I open up TikTok — all the time, without shame — I’m inundated with videos of women in Set Active apparel, wielding ice face rollers and pilates memberships, pedaling a better life. From the clean-girl aesthetic to the million-step everything shower to the right’s fascination with raw milk, these trends, however different from each other they may seem, all make it into the “wellness” venn diagram.
I’ve admittedly fallen for the hype, too. At any given time, you can catch me walking around campus wearing my Oura ring with my hair slicked back, talking about my new protein powder that tastes like lemonade. But these trademark trends of online wellness culture, though seemingly innocent, are all troubling in their own way, necessitating a return to the basics that actually make a difference.
Wellness as a concept started in the mid-twentieth century, and what once was seen as a New Age fringe philosophy is now mainstream — and an industry valued at $5.6 trillion. In my own experience as someone who’s had access to the internet for over ten years, online wellness culture has only gotten more frustratingly complicated and further away from the scientifically proven foundations of health.
Take the clean-girl aesthetic trend on TikTok — a trend inseparable from TikTok’s wellness culture and one that conflates looks with health, encourages overconsumption and is clearly rooted in racism, classism and fatphobia considering the platform’s clean girl icons. The way somebody looks is never a reliable marker of their health, and allowing creators to use their looks to legitimize their wellness advice is dangerous.
On the opposite end of the online wellness culture spectrum is the right’s obsession with raw milk and its supposed health benefits. The amount of attention given to a practice responsible for a quarter of food and waterborne illnesses before pasteurization was widely implemented is worrying and a symptom of the widespread wellness confusion plaguing internet users.
And before you say that you’d never fall for such outlandish advice, the same rhetoric legitimizes more innocent fads (mushroom coffee, anyone?) that are still a waste of your time.
I’ve come to realize that these wellness trends don’t deserve my time, and I’d argue that they don’t deserve yours either, both for the deeper issues they perpetuate and the amount of time one can spend consuming this content with little return. I don’t want to see another one of my friends or family members singing the praises of green juice cleanses or oil-pulling when they get about two grams of protein in a day.
So, if you need a basic reminder of what steps you can take to help your health without the gimmicks, here’s a bit of a refresher:
1. Drink water
3. Sleep
Maggie Dapp is the sports editor at The Beacon. She can be reached at dapp26@up.edu.
Have something to say about this? We’re dedicated to publishing a wide variety of viewpoints, and we’d like to hear from you. Voice your opinion in The Beacon.
