My friend and I decided to venture into a new gym this weekend. It was a cheap, one-day pass to poke around at a place that was littered all over Instagram. The gym was dialed for the aesthetics. It had the Instagram worthy vibes. Open garage doors allowed sunlight to leak in to illuminate the gym, the niche equipment spilled outside in both the back and front, and it was a house of mirrors with the ability to see your reflection at any angle. The bumping music set the vibe for the place to appease its Gen Z crowd, encouraging gym goers to converse as no headphones were needed. The vibe was there.
We tried to begin our lifting adventure inside, but the number of people combined with the limited benches pushed us outside. We landed on a bench where the sun pierced our eyes and forced our sweat glands to begin pouring as the heat from the sun cranked up our body temperatures. Shirts were optional, and cameras were everywhere. You thought someone might be talking to you only to soon find a camera positioned from the perfect angle to capture the Instagram worthy shot. It is an adjustment to get acclimated with the environment. You want to avoid being an extra in someone’s background. You still turn your head when someone asks a question into the empty air near you, but you soon learn that question isn’t for you but the algorithm.
It is all part of a rise in the fitness community of broadcasting every fitness pursuit to the world. Everything is done in the name of content. Every lift. Every run. Everything. It is jarring. Fitness is a pursuit done to nourish the mind, body, and soul. It isn’t a performative act. It is a betterment of yourself, not a betterment of your content in hopes of validation from an algorithm. It is for you, not for others.
Now, I am not opposed to never sharing any content at all. I nail the personal record and want to show off to the world, I’ll do it. I am not immune. I shared my recent front squat personal record. Maybe I’m pumped about how a run went? Got my weekly mileage goal? Amazing. I let my friends know and broadcast it to the world. However, that is for me. Maybe it moves me closer to accomplishing my half marathon goal time or feeling more confident. It is done for me. It isn’t done for content.
Daniel Kahneman was onto something when he said,
“The ‘Instagram Generation’ now experiences the present as an anticipated memory.”
Living in the name of content is not nourishment for your body. It is not feeding your soul. It is hoping that you remember the day your algorithm let your content hit. Hit so hard with one of your most banging, popular reels or TikToks. It strips away the present moment and assumes that what will come later must be so much better.
The camera is always watching. You don’t sink into your thoughts or let the music stir your soul. You move the camera around to capture all angles. You pollute the mind with constant thoughts on appeasing the algorithm at a later time with the perfect shots for the perfect video. It sacrifices the present in hopes of a better tomorrow.
I don’t think this is how people planned to live, and I doubt it’s how we want to. The beauty of the gym, the run, the yoga session, or anything we do to improve ourselves is it is a self betterment pursuit. It’s sacred.
The sacred time for me or time spent sharing it with others, with no outside inputs, just the present moment and good vibes. My favorite moments that weren’t captured on camera, but are etched as a memory in my mind. Limited pictures to show, only memories to explain. It is satisfying to sink into the sweat, let the music fill my soul, and nourish my body. Presence allows this.
Do I need to shun the algorithm entirely? No. But it’s worth not doing everything in the name of content and protecting those sacred things that help with the betterment of ourselves. A peace exists when we don’t do these things for something else, but ourselves. When we didn’t sacrifice the present for an anticipated memory.
Appreciate you being here.
-Scantron