Potential Harms of Wellness Culture and the Day in the Life TikTok Trend

I had to write an Op-ed for one of my classes about a topic relating to social media and the human body. This is what I wrote:

My TikTok For You page is infested with Day in the Life videos. Or rather, it used to be until I started disliking the videos so they would stop popping up every other scroll. Still, my following page remains full of these aesthetically pleasing short videos. A Day in the Life TikTok, otherwise referred to on social media as a #DITL, is a video following its respective content creator throughout their day. The TikTok usually includes a series of swipeable pictures, or short video snippets, sometimes paired with a voiceover or text. The creator might start the video by waking up, eating, working out, going to class or work, studying, seeing friends—you get the gist. 

On the surface, DITL TikToks featuring health oriented lifestyles might appear harmless or even beneficial. Like all social media, these posts can also be a fun way to share moments of one’s life with their followers. However, these videos tend to glamorize hyperproductivity and unrealistic eating and exercise norms. I argue that these videos, which are a manifestation of the negative aspects of online wellness culture, can inadvertently encourage unhealthy behaviors. Specifically in more vulnerable populations like tween and teenage girls, viewers may gather from these videos that they are “not doing enough,” prompting preoccupations surrounding food, health, and productivity. 

Online wellness culture consists of information and advice on maintaing a healthy lifestyle and expands to content about wellness practitioners’ experiences. There has been significant discourse surrounding trends like “75 Hard,” where people exercise intensely, abstain from alcohol, and diet for 75 days. Other aspects of online wellness culture advertise various supplements and remedies, like apple cider vinegar and ashwagandha gummy vitamins, chlorophyll water, or new workout gadgets like stylish two-pound weighted anklets to throw on during walks.

DITL TikToks feature these trends. What they also do is highlight the most productive parts of one’s day—the things that people want their followers to see. A common criticism of these videos is the display of meals. The premise of Day in the Life TikToks is to depict a timeline of one’s whole day through short clips or pictures. Creators emphasize their achievements and hide their idea of flaws. As a result, the videos often promote “clean” or “healthy” eating, but fail to show realistic ideals that are truly healthy. For example, creators will show themselves eating just one meal throughout the day, if that. Sometimes creators only include pictures of snacks, like a granola bar or a matcha, but not a full meal. This is objectively unhealthy, unrealistic, and unsustainable, yet it’s being promoted by influential content creators. Perhaps creators are eating more off camera, but their audience would have no way of knowing. Creators also typically post their exercise stats as proof of a workout. Not only is the display of one’s exercise and eating schedule detrimental to viewers, but also to the creators themselves. The awareness that one will be posting their “every move” for others to see adds unnecessary pressure to achieve the “perfect” day, which is not always possible. 

It’s rare to see an “Unproductive DITL” video on your For You page, because people don’t want to be perceived as lazy. Young people should be striving for healthy lifestyles for personal fulfillment, not validation from others online. DITL videos can quickly become toxic for both the creator and receiver of the content for this reason. 

We are living in an age where everyone’s an influencer. Micro-influencers are no longer just random college students with large followings, but rather our friends and peers who post their daily lives. Everything that is posted by those who we follow influences us in some way or another. Through DITL TikTok’s, we become influenced by glorified health culture and hyperproductivity. However, this glorification can be dangerous to teens and adolescents who are still developing mentally and are easily susceptible to self-consciousness and comparison. 

I caution viewers not necessarily to avoid Day in the Life videos and wellness culture altogether, but rather to reconsider what they are taking away from these videos. If viewers feel unaffected after watching DITL videos, or are perhaps motivated to try new routines, then there’s no reason to avoid them. However, if the videos result in feelings of angst, insecurity, and a sense of “not doing enough,” I encourage viewers to reevaluate their intake of this type of media. 

• college
• day in the life
• DITL
• girls
• health
• mental health
• social media
• tiktok
• wellness