SES
True or False: Access to trendy health content online is equal for all social classes.
False
Medicalization means all health trends online are scientifically valid.
Why might focusing solely on personal routines in wellness content obscure larger societal or structural factors affecting health?
It shifts responsibility to the individual while ignoring systemic contributors like work stress, food deserts, discrimination, or unequal access to healthcare.
Why might social media wellness trends reinforce SES inequality rather than reduce it?
They promote products and lifestyles only accessible to higher-income individuals, excluding lower-income audiences.
Self-diagnosis videos online often encourage this behavior in viewers.
Taking medical concerns into their own hands without consulting professionals
How does social media amplify the individualization of responsibility for health?
By presenting curated “success stories” and routines as achievable for anyone, social media normalizes personal blame for health struggles, even when societal pressures and unequal access play a major role.
Why do some wellness trends only feel accessible to certain people?
Because of differences in income and resources.
This wellness trend focuses on gut health, bloating, and digestion issues through supplements and diets.
Gut health
Why might burnout or hustle culture trends on social media negatively impact health, even when “wellness advice” is followed?
Because they reinforce a culture that equates productivity with worth, ignoring chronic stress, inadequate social support, and workplace or societal conditions that drive burnout and mental health issues.
How does income level shape not only access to wellness trends, but also perceptions of what “healthy living” looks like?
Higher-income individuals can afford luxury wellness, setting aspirational standards that may seem normative but are inaccessible to lower-income groups
Wellness influencers often label minor body changes as medical issues to sell products. This strategy is medicalization, but it also exploits what social phenomenon common on social media?
Health anxiety / fear of missing out (FOMO) / social comparison.
Why might wellness trends that focus on personal productivity and “hustle culture” worsen health inequities?
They reward those with the time, resources, and privilege to follow routines, while further stigmatizing people facing structural barriers, reinforcing inequities in stress, mental health, and physical wellbeing.