In today’s society, there is an evident culture of eating well and exercising daily. Healthy living is the newest trend. However, it has moved past just wanting to look great and feel great and has entered more for the desire to show off one’s organic meals and expensive exercise classes via youtube, Instagram, Snapchat. Social media stars post about their regimes to their many followers to share their ways of obtaining the way they look and the way they live. However, those ways most usually consist of pricy eating and pricy exercising. As the society we live in continues to be shaped by social media, a healthy lifestyle has become somewhat elitist with social media stars inspiring the idea to spend tons of money on organic foods and costly “effective” exercise classes and gym memberships.
A well-balanced diet is important to living a healthy lifestyle, as it allows people to get the proper nutrients to go about their day. However, many girls show off eating “healthy” items like expensive juices and smoothies on their profiles. By posting about these $10+ items they create an image of what followers see as what healthy living actually looks like. This false image puts being considered as “healthy” on a pedestal many cannot obtain, as most people do not have the expenses to be paying for an $11 smoothie from Whole Foods every day. Body trainer, Kayla Itsines is known for her six-pack and fitness workouts that she posts about on Instagram to her eleven million followers. Fans look up to her and work to train and eat like her. Many of her posts are of workout videos and transformations, but she also has many posts about what she is eating. She frequently posts a photo of her “morning snack” which is a picture-perfect smoothie bowl that is costly. To her followers, Itsines indirectly sends the message that if they want to look like her, they need to follow her lifestyle, which consists of spending a lot of money on “healthy” foods. Many people cannot do that, so being healthy like these fitness stars is only reachable for the wealthy people who have the money to afford such a costly diet.
Similarly, Instagram stars famous for being fit and healthy discuss their exercise regimes through social media. These regimes often consist of gym memberships or daily classes that are very expensive. Youtube blogger, Maggie Macdonald posts and blogs about her life, making it seem very desirable as a fit and healthy teen living in Boston. She often shares on youtube a “Day in my life” which is a video of her doing what she normally does in a day. Almost all of these videos display her doing a SoulCycle spin class. These 45 minute classes cost $30, which for a daily exercise is a lot of money. Many people cannot afford to pay that much, yet if they want to be like Maggie Macdonald, they feel as though they should be spending that amount on their daily physical activity. Through social media, Macdonald designs herself to be a desirable figure who advocates for eating well and exercising to stay fit. However, her ways of living happen to be very costly, and many people cannot afford to pay for those classes and live like that. Thus, she posts about a life that is considered “the healthy way to live,” but this life is not obtainable for many people who do have the money.
Healthy living is something that many people aspire to live by. Fitness and health gurus on social media platforms post about their healthy lifestyles with the goal to inspire people. And this rings true for the most part, as more and more people are influenced to change their lives by eating better and working out more. The health social media has become more corrupt, as these inspirations on Youtube and Instagram are not just advocating for people to eat healthier foods and exercise more. Instead, they are guilting people into thinking they are not “healthy” if they are not spending $150 a month at a high-class gym, or buying expensive and organic produce from Whole Foods. Kayla Itsines and Maggie Macdonald are just two examples of how as social media continues to shape society, it allows for the “trendiest” and most expensive daily activities to take over and become the seemingly only activities. Social media stars advocate for healthy living, but while doing so they make healthy living an elitist lifestyle by making it seem like you can only be “healthy” if you are like them, and that consists of eating expensive health foods and paying for expensive workouts.
For those reading, just remember that whatever you are doing is perfect, and a healthy lifestyle can be as simple as going on a 20 minute walk everday and eating what your body wants! Try not to let social media make you feel like you need to be spending great amounts of money on foods and workouts, because there is no need!