A Deceiving "Day In My Life"

The “Day In My Life”, otherwise known as DIML, trend has taken the TikTok culture by storm. Opening this app consists of endless influencers describing what they did that day, what they ate, and sometimes even promoting a product along the way. These videos consist of, as the name shows, what they do in the day. This day almost always has some type of workout, “nutritious foods”, and an overly productive schedule including timestamps. It’s almost impossible to escape a “Day in my life” TikTok or a “what I eat in a day”. 

These are seemingly harmless trends on the internet, influencers are either trying to spread a message or make money. Although, a select few of these videos promote unhealthy habits and highly unrealistic expectations. This trend is not only highly invasive and sometimes includes things viewers on the internet shouldn’t know about, but is also harmful to the people watching. It could make them question themselves, or make them think “am I not doing enough?” “am I not eating the right food?”, or the age old question of the internet “why am I not more like them?” 

alt-text: male looking stressed, saying "It's a lot, It's a lot to take in".

What someone does each day is really their business. There are so many people on the internet who go through quite literally every timestamp. From the time they wake up in the morning to when they go to sleep at night, they are documenting it. This takes the person making the video the entire day, then the audience is left thinking wow I am not doing enough.

Although, there are some influencers that do have only the best intentions for their audience. There are so many people that have gone on the internet and shared their story, inspiring others who are going through the same struggle. Even the rise of things like MomTok, which has gotten popular recently, have helped moms who need help with ideas on how to be healthy, or how to help their children. These types of videos are the ones that are real, they are authentic and display real life people doing real life things, not influencers in LA that run “10 miles a day” and eat under the doable limit of calories per day. It’s when “TikTok videos that have tags like #weightlosstips and #dietrecipes” get popular that things start to go south on the internet. 

Displaying your “eats” of the day or what you did on the internet seems like something that would be fun, or even engaging! When people start comparing themselves to the video is when it becomes harmful. The problem with the “What I eat In a Day”, or WIEIAD, trend is that One Person’s Healthy Can be Another Person’s Unhealthy (McMaster University, 2023). This is most definitely true. Someone’s “cheat day” could be what another person eats on a daily basis. Someone’s favorite food could be what someone would see as unhealthy or even gross, everyone has different nutritional goals and a TikTok video should never make a viewer feel like they are being unhealthy or that they aren’t doing enough. 

The wholesome side of these WIEIAD and DIML videos are the nutritionists or fitness experts who are trying to get their word out there. Sharing simple recipes, or promoting a food brand has no mal intent for the audience. There are many licensed dieticians and people who make recipes that are just trying to help people, and share their love for food. They aren’t trying to say “look I’m so much healthier and more productive than you”, rather they are communicating the message of “look at these healthy and fulfilling things you can do each day to make yourself feel more productive!” 

DIML and WIEIAD videos have become so popular because people genuinely just want to see how everyone else is living. Whether they are real or not is up to the audience to decide. You never know what someone is actually going through based on what they post online, a true judgement of an individual’s character most definitely is not going to be found on their TikTok.