Over the winter break, I allowed myself to dive headfirst into social media. I’m usually avoidant of social media platforms and chronically offline, so existing online again was a weird space to be in, especially while not making many posts during this time I felt like being on these apps for once. I could actively feel my brain rotting – audios getting stuck in my head on loop, forgetting everything I had just spent hours of my day watching, and immediately going back to Instagram’s TikTok clone, Reels, despite having just closed the app mere minutes ago.

While this participation may not sound enriching or like a good opportunity to learn anything worthwhile, it did allow me to realize a significant aspect about a niche group of content creators. These accounts in question are self-care content creators. Now, is selfcare necessary to sustain an energized and healthy life?

Yes, it absolutely is.

Is it also healthy to have hundreds of people telling you on repeat that juices, rigid bedtime routines or wellness rituals whenever you have a spare moment of time are the answer to all your problems and will usher in vast life improvements for you? Absolutely not.

The purpose of a routine is that it works for you. You are the one that is responsible for seeing what works in your own daily life. Getting guidance from other people is not necessarily a bad thing, but at the end of the day, your routine should be made by you, not somebody else. As a 20 year old, I know several people who wake up at six in the morning every single day. At the same time, I also know several people that would fundamentally wreck themselves as individuals if they woke up earlier than noon. It is not as though one person is more successful than the other because they get out of bed earlier than the other, they just have different ways of living.

Self-care content creators form an entire platform from pictures and minute-long video posts featuring tips and tricks meant to show to their followers how you can “effortlessly” change your life in no time at all. What most do not acknowledge is the mental and physical cost that this can place on a person who is just starting out on a path of trying to better their life. You may not have a problem with your personal routine and have been able to keep it up for a while, but this does not apply to everybody. Plus, you can still say you have a certain routine, but the upkeep of it is most likely expensive due to the capitalistic society we live in.

There is no reason why one should spend hundreds on gummies and special powder to make bitter drinks – all in the name of good health. Individuals can face such severe burn-out from work
that they might have the resources to accomplish a new task which benefits their life, but might have invisible boundaries set in place. Self-care has become tougher due to a lack of healthcare access, gym membership unaffordability and the large amount of time that has to be invested in listening to consultants – which, in 2024, is a profession that scams people out of their money as a more friendly
approach to multi-level marketing.