The Rise of Digital Burnout in the Age of Aesthetics
The internet has become a place where wellness is both modeled and marketed. On one side, platforms are filled with content promoting health—fitness regimens, mindfulness practices, and carefully crafted routines. On the other, those same images and videos often contribute to a rising sense of fatigue. Many young adults describe feeling not only inspired but also pressured, their self-care rituals becoming another task to manage rather than a source of renewal.
This tension raises a central question: In the pursuit of looking and living well online, are we quietly exhausting ourselves?
The New Face of Aesthetics
Social media has long dictated fashion and beauty trends, but the rise of wellness aesthetics represents a newer shift. For some, these trends provide motivation or a roadmap toward healthier habits. For others, they introduce unrealistic standards that measure success not just in appearance, but in how one’s lifestyle is displayed.
Experts in psychology and digital behavior note that this environment blurs the line between self-expression and performance. Rest, once private, is often presented as curated content: skincare routines, meditation spaces, even morning matcha. The aesthetic itself becomes the point, while the underlying purpose—mental clarity, balance, genuine rest—can get lost.
The Mental Health Trade-Off
The American Psychological Association has reported increased stress linked to social media exposure, particularly when individuals compare their own lives to carefully edited portrayals online. Instead of encouraging balance, constant scrolling can lead to decision fatigue, anxiety, and a diminished sense of accomplishment.
From a mental health perspective, this cycle is significant. Self-care is most effective when it relieves stress and replenishes energy. When it becomes performative or transactional—done for validation, likes, or proof of productivity—it can drain more than it restores. What begins as an effort to “feel better” may, unexpectedly, leave individuals more depleted.
Reframing Wellness
At Haute Green Tea, we look at wellness not as a checklist or aesthetic but as an interconnected practice—physical, emotional, and communal. The digital age complicates this by placing style and visibility at the forefront. To counterbalance, individuals and communities can ask: Does this routine serve me, or am I serving the routine?
Small shifts, like limiting screen time during morning or evening rituals, sharing wellness practices in real-life community spaces instead of only online, or redefining rest as a private, non-documented act, can reduce digital burnout.
Moving Forward
The internet is not inherently harmful. It has normalized access to wellness practices, given visibility to diverse voices, and provided connection across communities. But unchecked, the demand to live aesthetically pleasing lives online risks turning self-care into another obligation.
The challenge—and opportunity—is to separate the pursuit of wellness from its digital performance. In doing so, we can reclaim self-care as it was meant to be: restorative, personal, and sustaining.
