The Internet’s Obsession With Optimization Culture is Killing Our Mental Health
If you’ve been alive and on the internet in the past few years, you’ve likely witnessed the rise of optimization content and culture. This is the type of content that shows us “the 5-9 before my 9-5,” “my 3AM morning routine,” and “how to romanticize your life.” Optimization culture also looks like the influencers sharing their “content curriculums” - a pre-planned calendar of books, movies, music, and plays designed to cultivate knowledge around a monthly theme. At face value, such content seems harmless, if not positive. Who doesn’t want to get smarter, be more intentional about the content they consume, and use their limited morning free time wisely? At the very least, these videos are aesthetically attractive, often showcasing self-care products, bodies sculpted through 5AM gym sessions, and curated ‘inspiration’ pictures. Optimization culture tells us that we can, and should, make an intentional effort to live better and to optimize how we spend our time. This is a great idea in theory, but like all other things, there’s a hidden cost under the veneer of health and wellness. Optimation culture is an insidious drain on our collective mental health as a culture - let’s talk about why.
The genesis of optimization culture is the idea that we are not enough as we currently are. We see an influencer attend a pilates session, meditate, journal, drink a matcha, and get a blowout all before 7AM, and we compare that ideal to our own morning routine - if you’re a normal person, that routine is probably sleeping. That gap between the lived experience and the glossy ideal creates feelings of inferiority and insecurity. You may have been proud of yourself for incorporating every other day walks into your routine, but when you’re faced with virtually endless videos of people getting in an hour workout class daily, you might feel dissatisfied with your life or even ashamed of your lack of optimization.
Optimization, by definition, is forever a work in progress, calling for plans to be periodically reviewed for further changes and improvements. Quite literally, optimization is chasing the unattainable goal of perfection, and optimization culture pushes this pursuit on the masses. If optimization is being forever dissatisfied with your life, then the opposite sentiment would be gratitude, or the feeling of satisfaction with one’s life. The power of gratitude is well documented in the therapeutic literature, as researchers have linked practicing gratitude to decreased anxiety and depression, better resiliency, improved relationships, and even better physical health. If the literal opposite of optimization is known to be a boon for mental health, it follows that optimization may have the opposite effect. This idea is supported by the fact that perfectionism, closely related to optimization, is known to be linked with a battery of negative mental health outcomes such as stress, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.
Moreover, optimization is an extension of our capitalist society. At work, we are always chasing productivity, employers looking to squeeze more output out of a leaner workforce. It seems this pursuit of productivity has crossed the work/life boundary and followed us home too, where we strive to be productive in our free time. It isn’t enough to read a book for fun, it has to be part of a larger plan to become smarter, more educated, more attractive. It isn’t enough to take a walk around the block with your partner, instead, exercise should be regimented, intense, and complimented by a diet and supplement plan. Not even our free time is free from the pressure to improve, to work on a goal.
Optimization culture also robs us of the ability to be present in the moment. If the goal is to check off the boxes and complete an optimized routine, then we aren’t actually experiencing each moment as it is, we are rushing from task to task to get everything done in our limited free time. We don’t feel good because we enjoyed the workout or the meal, we feel good when we complete the task and have successfully optimized our evening. Optimization is the enemy of mindfulness, or the healthy practice of being present in the moment and intentionally experiencing the world around us. Worst of all, optimization culture promotes an individualistic mindset. When we are laser focused on self-improvement, we are ignoring the importance of social connection and community to personal and mental health. Social support is probably the most important factor in mental health - it is protective against anxiety, depression, dementia, and premature death, just to name a few outcomes - and it is almost summarily ignored in optimization culture.
With its focus on perfectionism and toxic individualism, optimization culture is a threat to public mental health. When we’re constantly exposed to unattainable ideals, it can be hard to feel good enough as we are. Here’s a challenge: spend your next evening or day off completely un-optimized, just doing what you want to do, with the people you want to do it with. I bet you’d be twice as happy that day as the influencers who get up at 5AM to film their optimized morning routines.
