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Wellness

The Consumerism Behind the Health and Wellness Industry

Discover the upsides and downsides of health consumerism.

Illustration by Adina Burrow

I’m sure many of us have once or twice fallen victim to TikTok advertisements for beauty and wellness products. If you’re active on TikTok or any social platform, it’s nearly impossible to avoid them. Our feeds are bombarded with companies and influencers telling us that we need to buy certain things to be healthy. Many forms of social media influence audiences and individual users with carefully placed advertisements.

Whether it’s a slimming bodysuit or an expensive blender, there is no limit to how hard sponsored media will try to convince you that you need these things. On the other hand, the rise of health and well-being content on popular social platforms has caused a surge in prioritizing wellness.

Utilizing popular media to encourage people to practice healthy habits can be extremely effective. But this begs the question: how much do we have to spend to be “healthy” in the eyes of these influencers?

Benefits

Young woman improves physical health by doing yoga at home.
Credit: Shutterstock/Paper Trident

Utilizing online platforms with millions of users is a great way to encourage good health. As someone who spends more time on social media than I should, I’ve noticed a trend in posts centered around achieving good health. Many influencers on social apps center their brands around spreading wellness trends and educating people on good health.

Effective Spread of Information

The popularization of social media and online publications has given the media endless outlets for advertisements. Through commercials, posts, and clips, these corporations have been able to share what they have to offer with millions of people worldwide.

Young people scramble to discover new trends and participate in popular consumer culture, trying to fit financial and physical and mental health standards.
Credit: Shutterstock/Paper Trident

Much of what we see online today, though we may not often realize it, is promotional material for businesses and brands, small and large. Bigger businesses have been using advertisements, physical and digital, to promote their services for years. However, using social media can be a great way for smaller wellness businesses to get the word out about their products and services through promotional material.

Making Health and Wellness a Trend

Trends are inescapable, especially in today’s world. Every day, we are targeted by advertisements chosen explicitly for us to see based on our online activity. If we want to learn how to crochet, we will receive online video tutorials and ads for helpful craft tools. These ads are carefully chosen for each individual user based on search history activity and time spent on certain sites. If we display an interest in content regarding health and wellness, our algorithm will be altered to cater to this interest. Our devices will recommend certain posts and platforms with information, products, and tips that may pique interest.

Trends can be annoying and invasive, but they can also spread awareness and inspire people to take their health into their own hands. With the amount of content and information we have access to thanks to the internet, people can educate themselves on ways to take care of their bodies and minds effectively.

Harmful effects

Young people are overwhelmed by the amount of media they are exposed to through their mobile devices.
Credit: Shutterstock/Paper Trident

While targeting consumers with health products can be effective in some ways, it can also be harmful in others. Good health has become a luxury all over the world, especially in American society. We are exposed to many different kinds of ads every day for a multitude of products, many of them being health-related.

The emergence of physical and digital media has turned the wellness industry into an exclusive clique. Only a select few can afford to practice wellness to the fullest, and the rest watch from the sidelines.

The Privilege of Good Health

In a 2024 survey coordinated by Research America, nearly half (46%) of the interviewees said that they find it at least somewhat hard to obtain nutritious, healthy foods. On top of that, over half (54%) agree that the United States is not making enough progress to make these foods obtainable and affordable.

When people lack access to healthier options due to financial status, they turn to cheaper processed foods. With the fillers and additives paired with the ease of mass production, processed foods are significantly cheaper and easier to come by than fresh, organic ones.

Being healthy is a privilege that many people do not realize they have. Having access to fresh produce and health-conscious food options is something that many don’t have.

Unrealistic Standards

Body image affects everyone in one way or another. Every day, we are overwhelmed with images of what beauty is and “should be”. Most of the time, these images are of models who look more like statues than real people. We see their symmetrical, slim, and seemingly perfect figures and look at ourselves with disgust and disappointment.

Different people apply makeup to feel beautiful in the eyes of society, which can weigh upon their mental health and self-image.
Credit: Shutterstock/Paper Trident

Yes, in recent years, we have seen an emergence in body positivity and realistic body types portrayed in media. However, a majority of companies still utilize the familiar blonde and skinny model type. People who don’t fit that standard begin to feel less than them. Until normal bodies are represented enough on billboards, in magazines, and online, we will never feel like we are acceptable. This is how companies and influencers get people to buy their products.

Making Health Selective and Exclusive

Whenever I see a video on TikTok about healthy habits, it’s usually filmed in a lavish house by someone wearing expensive workout clothes. They make these videos to show audiences how to make a smoothie bowl with their expensive blender and ingredients only found at Whole Foods. They make other videos showing an at-home pilates workout on a hundred-dollar floor machine. Something I always notice about these videos is that they are branded by their creators as “easy.” But who are they easy for?

@carlyhataway

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♬ original sound – carlyhataway

When influencers make videos that are visually marketed towards people like them (high-status and white-collar), it discourages everyone else from believing that they can be healthy, too. They think that the only way they can achieve physical wellness is by owning LuluLemon leggings and a Ninja blender.

This is harmful in two significant ways. The first is that most audiences will give up on practicing wellness because their version doesn’t look a certain way. The second is that they may spend unnecessary amounts of money trying to replicate what they see online. This makes the idea of health seem unattainable for the majority of people and discourages them from even trying.

Closing Thoughts

Influence is a powerful tool, and when used to criticize and exclude, it can affect millions of online users worldwide. Health has become an aesthetic trend and has created a visual standard around what it is “supposed” to look like. When someone’s version of health doesn’t look like what they see online, they second guess themselves. They will do whatever they can to replicate what they are exposed to on social media. Advertisements have the power to distort and distract. They pull our eyes away from what’s truly important and force us to focus on whatever they are trying to sell.

Credit: Shutterstock/Paper Trident

Marketing wellness videos toward the upper classes excludes everyone else from finding the proper encouragement to make health a priority. Living in America is already expensive, from health insurance to rent to everyday essentials. Shouldn’t everyone be permitted and inspired to focus on their health rather than worry about its cost?

Written By

20-year-old neutral milk hotel fanatic, travel addict, and film enjoyer.

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