Social Media's Obsession with #selfcare

“Self-care” has been a popular buzzword on the internet for over a decade. We see the term used anywhere from #selfcarethread posts on Instagram to “self-care aesthetic” on Pinterest of white girls in face masks and the pretentious “SELF CARE ROUTINE” vlogs on Youtube. My self-care understanding has been based solely on my exposure to pink candlelight baths and under-eye patches on social media. Yet self-care is an actual mental health care practice - not just made up of superficial fluff (from Shea Body Butter). The dichotomy between our medical and cultural understanding of self-care raises the question: How did this happen? The answer is in social media. 

First, let’s define self-care

Self-care is caring for one's well-being while coping with illness and stress (WHO, 2020). It is a highly personalized practice to meet all of one's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs; remember that there is no "one size fits all".  

This practice dates back to the American Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panthers Party: the organization understood how "systems of oppression negatively impacted the health and well-being of marginalized people"; Black activists knew to invest time into the mind, body, and soul - in ways societal systems did not (McDonald, 2022). 

What we know as self-care today only developed rapidly in the 2010s. In the past decade, depression, anxiety, and other (estimated) cases of mental illnesses sky-rocketed, and the self-care movement was a response to these lifestyles. Such practices were widely advertised on social media, such as Tumblr and Instagram. 

You would have seen the iconic Victoria’s Secret and Starbucks duo on any #selfcare Tumblr page

While social media coverage has successfully helped people improve their health and maintain well-being, it has also exposed self-care to aestheticization.

Self-care on social media

In contrast to platforms like Twitter or Reddit, social media such as Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest offer visual stimulation and satisfaction through images, photographs, and videos versus text. Therefore, such algorithms prioritize aesthetically pleasing visuals over written content; as NYU student Maia McDonald blatantly puts it in her article “In Offense to Self-Care,” “Faces get more views than paragraphs.”

As we all know, social media runs off instant gratification; posts are packed with catchy songs, bright colors, and controversial captions to push viewers to process information faster. (Perhaps you came across this article from our beautiful post or attention-grabbing reel (or I sent the link to you and forced you to read it).) Hence, only the most aesthetically pleasing posts will attract a few moments of the users’ attention - garnering high views and reaching larger audiences. Influencers and e-commerce companies use this exact model to design their posts; in the context of self-care, creators will only publish the most “aesthetic” content to achieve profits. 

Don’t know about y’all, but that looks pretty darn aesthetic to me.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “aestheticization” is “the action or process of making something aesthetic in character or appearance.” The definition of “aesthetic” is “the (attractive) appearance or sound of something.” 

Social media’s coverage of self-care redefines improving your physical and mental well-being within the context of a race for aesthetics; self-care is no longer perceived as something necessary for self-preservation but as an artful, curated identity in line with trends on social media. For example, on Pinterest, the top results from searching “self-care” are photographs of wellness treatments, facemasks, and bubble baths, hazy glimpses of a “perfect” routine under meticulously beautiful lighting. While they are valid practices to improve health, other intangible processes, such as setting boundaries, detaching from technology, and completing simple tasks during episodes of mental illness, are not as widely promoted on social media. 

Why is the aestheticization of self-care dangerous?

Although aestheticization can be a fun way to make mundane tasks more enjoyable, social media's perpetuation of labeling glamorous photos "self-care" limits the medical and wellness practice to "Instagrammable" or "Pinterest-worthy" activities. 

The aestheticized self-care portrayed on social media does not accurately depict the process's challenges. Although self-care for specific individuals can involve attending yoga classes, many other, equally, if not more necessary, intangible forms of care cannot be photographed or easily aestheticized. As a result, these practices are not shown or promoted on social media. For example, a key element of meeting and protecting your emotional needs is maintaining positive relationships and setting boundaries with your friends and family. This action cannot be captured in a beautiful photo or 5-second video. Thus, it receives a different coverage than the yoga class would. Self-care practices of this nature need more representation on social media; currently, there exists miseducation on what self-care is, which limits public understanding of the practice. 

The visuals-based algorithms we are familiar with dissuade users from creating text-based content, only promising high reach from the prettiest photos. Consequently, creators may publish the heavier and more sophisticated sides of self-care. While many use messaging to encourage genuine growth, the social media algorithm undermines creators' efforts. Therefore, it is unfair to only blame the creator; they should not be fully responsible for the biases that exist in the wellness industry as presented on social media. They are also humans working hard to make a living - they are only pawns of the larger tech giants in the grand scheme of social networking; they can only play by the rules set by these algorithms. 

Not only does social media redefine self-care as a set list of activities according to its heavily curated images of an "aesthetic paradigm". This phenomenon introduces another problem: does the failure to mimic those images equate to inadequate self-care? Kaitlin Kan described her experience with aestheticized self-care in Sunstroke Magazine: "I whirred through my Pinterest feed of pastels and cartoon fruit aimlessly, as I hand-selected those that aligned with my "self-care aesthetic" — only to find that my attempts at these picturesque bullet journals fell short. It stirred my frustration towards a self-care model I could not attain."

"If self-care becomes more about the presentation than the action, is it self-care?" asked Amy Beecham on Stylist. But out of desperation and in a futile attempt to feel better, netizens become so preoccupied with the presentation of self-care that the practice loses all meaning.

What can we do to help?

The best way to avoid falling into aestheticized self-care is to educate yourself on self-care's true significance and be aware of the biases that exist on social media. Although I, too, occasionally indulge in the joy of trying to recreate Pinterest self-care routines, I understand that there is much more I can do to improve my well-being. I suggest everyone to think critically about the content they consume and its impact on your lifestyle - is that under-eye mask really solving all of your problems? Although it might help with your skin and your confidence, don’t be afraid to think differently either - maybe what you really need is to reconsider your time management and working habits.

“Only by educating ourselves on how we are influenced by media can we begin to unpack the true essence of what it means to take care of one’s self.” Kaitlin Kan, Sunstroke Magazine

Works cited:

Beecham, A. (2021). Self-care: has it become just another unrealistic aesthetic. [online] Stylist. Available at: https://www.stylist.co.uk/health/self-care-aesthetic-social-media/549497.

McDonald, M. (2022). In Offense to Self-Care – Confluence. [online] Nyu.edu. Available at: https://confluence.gallatin.nyu.edu/sections/creative-nonfiction/in-offense-to-self-care [Accessed 15 Feb. 2024].

Kan, K. (2021). The Dangers of Aestheticized Self-Care. [online] Sunstroke Magazine. Available at: https://www.sunstrokemagazine.com/archive/2021/3/26/the-dangers-of-aestheticized-self-care [Accessed 6 Jul. 2023].McDonald, M. (2022). In Offense to Self-Care. [online] 

WHO (2020). Self-care interventions for health. [online] Who.int. Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/self-care#tab=tab_1 [Accessed 15 Feb. 2024].