I always considered myself too old for TikTok. A year ago, I downloaded the app, surfed, felt a mixture of horror and fascination, tried to make a video, couldn’t figure it out and gave up.
But recently, I took another look at it, and what I found fascinated and confused me: Video after video, the creators were slowly and carefully concocting hot drinks: frothy matcha or capsule coffee poured over ice in large cylindrical pitchers, chased with milk. of almonds. These people woke up before dawn to start their day. They all pushed the same swollen headband on their foreheads, then recited morning affirmations while applying serum and combing their brows. They wrote in a journal about her “goals” and planned her day by the hour. They worked in spandex ensembles so cool that I felt the urge to throw out my old, worn-out sports bras. They meditated and/or practiced yoga (both?!). They made smoothies with fresh fruit and all kinds of powdered supplements. In some cases, they conducted “mental health walks.” and they documented it all.
Why was everyone following a very similar #MorningRoutine and should I too? With over 1 million videos and 15 billion views to the hashtag (and another 37bn on #skincareroutine), there must be something to recommend it.
The rise and shine of the grind
The morning routine videos originated on YouTube, says Professor Crystal Abidin, a digital anthropologist and founder of the TikTok Research Network (TCRN). At the height of the pandemic, TikTok usage skyrocketed and “creators” who had garnered a following by showcasing their exciting lives, once filled with events, restaurants, and travel, had to rely on mundane domestic life for content. . That’s when the “morning routine” genre migrated hard to TikTok. And with the popularity of that genre came new opportunities for influencers.
“The morning routine emerged as one of the storytelling tools for commercial influencers to promote products in a more natural and informal way,” says Abidin. “They’d say, ‘Here are my favorite products,’ and there would be a review.”
“When you frame it as a ‘morning routine,’ as if this is something you do spontaneously every day…it gives the impression that you really are a believer and consumer of these brands,” he adds. All of this goes to make product reviews more credible.
samantha tanor, a business and career-focused TikTok influencer, says “morning routine” posts are “one of the most common ways for a lifestyle influencer to connect with their followers and gain new ones.” A morning routine is “low fruit.” Because? “Every person on earth wakes up in the morning and has a series of actions that they take to prepare for the day.”
In the past two years, Tannor says, the morning routine has become more realistic and achievable. She calls it “the unfiltered morning routine 2.0.” Now, Tannor says that influencers “wake up without makeup” and share less-than-perfect moments. It is relational rather than aspirational.
However, I was wondering if the brand or the money was the only point of sharing your tomorrow. jennifer gallogher, a Florida-based TikToker, says there’s more. One of his recent morning routine videos included 10 minutes of journaling “like you’re living the life you’ve always dreamed of.”
“From time to time, I choose to film these moments to help inspire others about how important it is to have a morning routine and also to shed some light on what my routine looks like,” says Gallagher. Documenting quieter moments with the “intention to share it in a post” also provides an “internal push” to be more productive, she says.
making my first video
An Inner Drive sounded great to me as a busy mom, writer, and winemaker. On a random weekday morning, I made a valiant attempt at creating my own morning routine video. I set up a tripod and phone in the bedroom and couldn’t hide my embarrassment at the opening clip. As I was fumbling through my usual activities, I was wondering if anyone would comment on the rustic look of our vintage espresso machine (they did). I was worried that nobody would want to see my face first thing, without makeup and not without wrinkles. But I managed to make a short video. I posted it and closed the app, again telling me I was too old for TikTok.
As my research progressed, an amazing thing happened: new rituals arose in my morning routine (although I would keep the tripod). In the evenings, he would prepare overnight oats to eat the next morning; sometimes I even drank it before coffee, which some TikTokers say reduces the cortisol spike. I started slipping out the door for long solo walks. After watching some “Sunday Reboot” videos, in which people spend their mornings cleaning and organizing their homes, I went out and bought a few bins for the dry goods that clutter our pantry. However, I did not get to put all my plants in the shower to water them, since @cash_mani he does this as part of his “Sunday reset”; ultimately I was too lazy to bother.
Allow TikTok content?
This article includes content provided by Tik Tok. We ask for your permission before anything is uploaded as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
Comedy, commodification and community
He still couldn’t get over the homogeneity: the same headband, the same glass jar and the same metal straw. Some of the repetition is likely due to TikTok’s algorithm, which inevitably shows us more of the same: accounts that are just like us and like each other. But I still wondered why people seemed to use the same products repeatedly. Was it about influencers getting a commission on your Amazon store?
In part, it is, says Abidin. But there is more: “We can think of these things as symbols or emblems, loaded with ideology,” says Abidin, using his anthropological approach. Glass jars and reusable straws symbolize well-being and personal care, as well as environmentalism, since they are opposed to disposable versions. However, Abidin points out that it is easy to “single out responsibility for climate change and environmental destruction” through these kinds of symbolic actions, while he forgets to “ask the hard questions, [hold] responsible Corporations, [get] governments to reduce emissions. The overemphasis on conscious consumerism misses the larger point.
Sara Petersen, author of the upcoming book Momfluenced, he notes that some TikTokers see through the veneer of “morning routine” domestic bliss. she points to a video in which mental health activist KC Davis denounces the futility of a perfect morning routine, saying, “You don’t have to wake up before your kids. You don’t have to meditate.”
Petersen says that social media encourages the commodification of so many facets of home life and parenthood, with “aspirational pantries, aspirational laundry rooms, aspirational after-school snacks, etc.”
What creators like KC Davis show is that these tasks are actually necessary, which makes them “morally neutral”, eliminating the need to aestheticize or celebrate them.
All over TikTok, I also found “morning routine” video parodies. There was the one from Reece & Sophy.Blind Morning Routine Stereotype Edit”, which sheds light on the assumptions of sighted people. i smiled at him The morning of @emmayoules in which he sleeps in the open air to be able to wake up and run “three times around the world”.
Allow TikTok content?
This article includes content provided by Tik Tok. We ask for your permission before anything is uploaded as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.
Abidin describes parody TikToks as comedic and potentially “flattening” and lacking in nuance, the latter, particularly when men make fun of women’s morning routine videos. “In a way it takes away people’s agency,” she says. “It ignores the fact that people are making decisions about how they want to start their day in these videos.”
While the routines can be aspirational or contrived, these videos are also part of building an online community, says Abidin. In #CleanTok For example, the morning routine genre helps people connect about ways to clean up a house with low emotional cost, or while dealing with attention deficit issues; #MomTok is a space where gender helps parents connect with best practices as they prepare their children for the day. For people of color, morning routines often include hair care tips that can provide a service to other people of color or, in one case, Abidin notes, educate parents of adopted children.
There is also criticism, in the genre of the morning routine. Abidin highlights videos of dads grooming their children, “normalizing the idea of doing your daughter’s hair, dressing your son, giving them mirror affirmations” while “usually I would associate them with the mother as caretaker and it’s refreshing. When is the daddy?
It turns out that mornings are not so simple. They can make a neat narrative package for brands, however it is possible to document routines in ways that go beyond consumption. Maybe there can be social criticism in our breakfast, our skin care, if we move away from commerce and focus on community.
