We probably all know the feeling: after a long and exhausting day, you finally come home, curl up on your couch and treat yourself with a well-deserved bar of chocolate. At the same time, you start scrolling through social media and immediately feel bad. Why? Because you are confronted with pictures of perfectly beautiful people whose bodies look like the ones of Adonis and Aphro- dite 2.0. Hence, instead of enjoying your chocolate, you get unsatisfied and compare yourself to seemingly unattainable ideals. Welcome to our generation of constant self-optimization!
While several years ago models like Kate Moss motivated a whole generation of women to become as skinny as possible, this trend has shifted in recent years. Slogans like ‘fit is the new skinny’ imply that it is not in fashion anymore to ‘just’ be skinny but to be healthy and fit instead. At first glance, this new fitness trend does not appear to be bad – on the contrary. Doctors and nutritionists seem to agree on the fact that regular exercising and enough vitamins are a good foundation to live a long and healthy life – especially since a significant number of people suffer from overweight nowadays. Recent studies show that approximately one out of five French people between the age of 15 and 25 are obese and one out of three French adolescents admits to not do any sports at all.
When taking a closer look at this development, one however also notices that social media and advertisement have pushed the fitness trend to a whole new level. Our feeds are flooded with pictures of fitness influencers who show-off their six-packs, ab cracks and thigh gaps. They share recipes of protein shakes and low-carb food – and they are success- ful! One example is the German fitness influencer Pamela Reif who reaches more than 4 million fol- lowers with her posts that show her trained body laying on a beach in tiny bikinis, posing in sexy un- derwear or sipping healthy green smoothies. At just 23, she has already published two books that ins- tantly became bestsellers in Germany, one of them being a cookbook. But why do so many people buy her books? After all, Pamela is neither a cook nor a nutritionist. She did not even follow any further education after graduating from high school. Pamela has, however, managed to establish her name as a brand that stands for a defined and strong body and a healthy way of living. It implies that you have to look like her to be successful. Especially young girls who do not yet have a consolidated personality admire her and Pamela’s book appears to be the key to success. By buying it, those girls believe that they will get closer to their goal of getting an equally ‘perfect’ body.
These days, not only influencers but also models look like athletes and follow a strict fitness schedule under the supervision of the world’s most famous trainers. Collages of ‘before-and-after’ pictures transmit the message that the body of a supermodel is achievable for each and every one of us – you just have to go to the gym four to five times a week, eat less sugar, drink no more alcohol and especially stop smoking – it is that ‘easy’. Slo- gans like ‘work hard, play hard’ and ‘no pain, no gain’ attempt to keep us motivated. But is it really necessary to sacrifice that much and be in pain to look good? Well, large parts of our gene- ration would probably say yes. The so-called generation Y, which includes everyone born between the early 1980s and the late 1990s, is the very first generation of ‘Digital Natives’. As such they do not only know how to use the new technologies but they also like to present themsel- ves on social media – usually in the best light possible. As many of them try to become the best version of themselves, I prefer to call this generation the genera- tion of self-optimization. In the sphere of sports and fitness, this implies that many strive to be- come fitter, faster, healthier and prettier – and they often want everyone to notice. Which better platform is there than to share your #fitnessjourney with your #fitfam on social media? You can send snaps from the gym at 7 in the morning, post screenshots of your training results in your stories, take pretty pictures of your vegan, sugar-free food and post pictures in a bikini to show how your hard work finally paid off. Of course, not everyone reveals such private insights online yet we are nevertheless often confronted with them once we use social media. But which consequences does this constant comparison have on the way we feel in our own bodies?
Although there are a few positive effects such as an increased motivation to get fit and the commitment to eat healthier, the nega- tive consequences outweigh. The constant comparison with other people can lead to rising dissatisfaction with our bodies and ourselves. This frustration can get aggravated since many young people will never be able to reach their beauty and fitness ideal as our anatomies are all different. We should get alarmed when 14-year-old girls and boys start getting a bad conscience once they eat more than one chocolate cookie a day and start spending their pocket money on unrealis- tic workout packages that claim to help you get a six-pack within just 6 weeks. Not to mention the risk involved in home workouts without the supervision of a trainer who controls the correct execution of your exercises. The pressure to stay in shape, paired with the critical way we perceive our bodies is a dangerous com- bination that can result in low self-esteem and in the worst cases in body image and eating disor- ders. This illustrates how qui- ckly and easily the whole fitness trend can turn into an unhealthy fitness obsession with dange- rous consequences especially on the younger ones amongst us. But what happened to the fun and the social aspect that sports and food usually entail?
When our parents were the same age as us, there was no such thing as gyms. Instead, people joined sports associations to get active. Fortunately, those sports clubs still exist and next to a decent amount of exercise, you usually also have the opportu- nity to meet new people. Especially team sports can lead to the greatest friendships because no matter how a game ended, you usually go for a beer afterwards – either to celebrate a successful match or to alleviate the feeling of being defeated. Even if you don’t join a sports club it is still better to go for a run outside in nature than to inhale the sticky gym air. Sports should not only be about getting that perfect body but also about fun, friendship and the feeling of forgetting all of your worries for a few hours or just 20 minutes. The same is true for food. Instead of restricting your- self to only eating healthy meals and counting calories, food should also be about cooking, inviting friends over, eating together and enjoying a delicious meal. Of course, it is important to make sure that we provide our body with all the vitamins and nutrients it needs, but eating can be so much more than just that.
So yes, sports and a healthy diet are important but what is even more important is the right motivation behind it all. If you start exercising and counting your calories because of the perceived pressure from social media, then this is the wrong approach. Instead, you should do the things that make you feel good and happy and if those things are one (or two) glasses of rosé on a night out with friends, then that is fine. It is all about finding the right balance for yourself. Our bodies and lives are different so there is no single recipe to success – and believe me, if there was one, the fitness influencers would have long sold it. After all, why should you eliminate the things that make you enjoy life and feel happy? So next time, you come home from a long day at work and curl up on your couch, enjoy that bar of chocolate and put that stupid phone away.
Par Caroline Lurz
