“Content” has evolved from cat videos to chaotic health trends. From goat yoga to wellness drips, it unpacks the absurdity of overconsumption, influencer hype, and our quest for perfection. If you’ve ever doubted your guasha or wanted to quit Instagram, this one’s for you!
Once upon a time, content meant satisfied or something that is contained, but today it means any type of information or media that users share on social media platforms to inform or entertain.
The meaning of content has changed tremendously, and with the meaning changing, the type of information being released on the internet has transformed greatly as well.
The internet was made available to the public almost 33 years ago, and social media only 27 years ago. But the magnitude of the evolution in a short time has been magnificent; we’ve seen YouTube go from cat videos to true crime documentaries. Steadily, we have moved to a different universe of ‘content.’
At times, I am disoriented by the massive volume of data that I consume per minute. The stats are in: per day in 2024, 402.74 million terabytes (TB) of data is consumed daily.
Every day, there is a new trend to follow. I have to get my back cracked professionally, but don’t forget, it should be satisfying, not sure if the satisfying bit is for me or the viewers. Drink warm water with apple cider vinegar. And do an ASMR skincare, if it’s not ASMR, then what’s the point? Acupuncture, wet cupping, dry cupping, and ear seeding are all essential for my body to be pain-free and my mind to be clear. Apply this, that, and the other thing. You have to do it; otherwise, how will you reach your full potential?
The next life-altering and groundbreaking ‘concept’ is cortisol levels, just before this, it was cold water plunges, then it was all these acids that we should be applying on our faces.
Don’t ingest acid that’s terrible for you; instead, apply it to your face, not the apple kind but the AHAs and BHAs.
Every single week, there’s a new wellness trend. Speaking of cortisol, high cortisol levels can ruin your metabolism; it’s what’s making you fat, how terrible, but don’t we need cortisol to function normally? No, but this influencer said, lower cortisol levels would make me look skinnier.
Insulin resistance is an epidemic; it’s killing us all slowly, apparently, and these are the foods that you should stop eating. It’s all gluten-free, zero fat, sugar-free, no artificial sweeteners, yet it’s still sweet, nut-free, grain-free, green veggies, but not too many green vegetables, you might just turn green. At the same time, make sure you’re eating every 2 hours. Also, make sure insulin doesn’t ‘de-resist’ completely, that would be bad… I guess.
How to be healthier: step 1- remove the puffiness from your face, guasha upwards, never down, but drain the lymphatic fluid downwards, by an A-grade marble of course, otherwise it won’t work, that’s what all the influencers keep saying. Follow that up with 24 other steps to have healthy, glowing, scar-free, pimple-free, pigment-free skin. Okay?
There is so much information that we need to follow, do, learn, and try.
The world has become cramped with too many rules, too many products, too many tips, too much advice. This overconsumption, overindulgence, might just be the death of us.
Trends seem to change 4 times as fast; it’s a party for industrialists. Thriving off of people’s insecurities and illnesses.
For example, red light therapy erases 10 years off your face, so does every other face product, which one to choose? How about all of them?
Feeling lethargic? No, don’t drink a glass of water! That’s so lame, so old-school. Instead, add the water or whatever it claims to be, directly to your veins and call it a wellness drip. Everyone needs a wellness drip, it’s the most important thing for your body. It hydrates, nourishes, and revitalises, even better than a glass of juice that would do the exact same thing.
Who drinks plain water now, anyway? Add the water-flavour enhancer, it’s sugar-free, gluten-free, non-GMO, vegan, and super like good for you. Just a pink powder that makes water taste better, like why would you not add an unknown pink powder to your glass of water? It’s quite beneficial for us, you know.
And who here knows what goat yoga is? Regular yoga is in the past, get with the times, goat yoga is all the rage, what’s different, you ask? Just the goats added to regular yoga to make it fun-ner, it’s actually like super important for you. No, really, it is.
All these influencers are trying to promote everything and anything all at once, just so they’re always on trend and viral; why would it even matter if someone dies because of their recommendation? What matters most are the views, the money, the fame, the power.
Brain all cluttered? Foggy, soggy, and all of the above? Try sound baths! They make you feel cleansed and clear. Why would you want to go on a walk when you can spend hundreds of dollars to hear someone lightly clinking metal bowls? Sleeping in your own room, with the lights off, is overrated. Let’s do it in a tiny little pod in a tiny little clinic and pay a tiny fortune to feel alone and calm?
It’s amazing, it’s so dark and quiet in there.
Chakras not aligned? Then you need crystal therapy! Rocks, or better known as crystals, that boost low energy, prevent bad energy, release blocked energy, and transform one’s aura, wow! But isn’t that too much to ask from semi-precious stones and rocks?
We know about wellness drips, now we have something quicker, portable and always handy. Drumroll, please! Wellness patches these stickers that reduce anxiety and depression. Defying all laws of biology, but you know what this girl on Instagram said they made her feel less anxious? Stickers that make you feel ‘normal.’ But, if no one’s feeling well, then who is?
If everyone is in need of flavoured waters and candle aura sessions to feel better, then what did we do before? They didn’t have red light therapies and wellness drips to feel younger, more energetic, and happier. Why is it that no one right now is ever feeling 100%?
Everyone wants to feel young, happy and lively all the time, but why is feeling sad, older and tired such a bad thing?
We are in a constant dopamine rush; if we’re not feeling the rush all the time, we’re suddenly depressed. We have to understand that we cannot be on this high at all times; the essence of it is that it happens infrequently, which is what makes it amazing.
In the name of wellness and health, and nourishment, people are creating, selling and promoting anything they deem fine. From drinking kombucha to eating up their own placenta, where is the limit?
Influencers sprinkled like cockroaches all over social media are advertising it without the thought how this would benefit or damage people around. No moral compass, no accountability for their actions because it’s a free world and freedom of speech is a fundamental right, right? But at the end of the day, for the sake of wellness, we have ruined ourselves.
If this routine isn’t followed, then what are we doing?
Wake up, drink hot water with green juice and sea moss and apple cider vinegar, add some multi vitamins, magnesium, blah blah blah.
Go to the gym, sauna, then the ice bath. Journal, meditate, and talk to a therapist.
Go to work, but before that, I need to slap on a wellness patch.
Skip lunch, in fact, just get a vitamin drip on; it really gives you the energy to complete the rest of the day.
Now that we’re back home.
Time for some aromatherapy, really makes it relaxing. A red-light mask on, with some snail mucin and the entire 20-step Korean skin care routine, it really makes a difference when 15 different products are applied at the same time.
Silk pillowcase, silk eye mask, mouth tape, face tape, white noise, weighted blanket and just a CBD tablet for the best sleep ever. Ah! Perfect, can’t wait to do it all over.
What I don’t understand is what happened that regular people with regular lives feel the need to do all that to feel ‘mentally and physically well’. What happened that we can’t go without the help of these little ‘tools’? Who did this to us? Was it the industries? Was it the marketers? Did we do this to ourselves?
But the point is that we are overloaded by overconsumption, it’s overwhelming, overpowering and overtiring. Not only are we overspending, but we are constantly overstimulated. To the point we are overdosing ourselves, and honestly, this overconsumption is overrated.