Behind every influencer is an army of the influenced, many adrift in debt and mass-produced clutter. The platforms need influencers and influencers need audiences — but what the influenced need is not so simple.
Behind every influencer is an army of the influenced, many adrift in debt and mass-produced clutter. The platforms need influencers and influencers need audiences — but what the influenced need is not so simple.
Behind every influencer is an army of the influenced, many adrift in debt and mass-produced clutter. The platforms need influencers and influencers need audiences — but what the influenced need is not so simple. Behind every influencer is an army of the influenced, many adrift in debt and mass-produced clutter. The platforms need influencers and influencers need audiences — but what the influenced need is not so simple.
InIn 1914 Joseph Pilates was sitting in a World War I-era internment camp watching his fellow inmates waste away when he had an idea. As he later recounted to a journalist, the skinny prison courtyard cats kept spry and limber, stretching and moving even as they starved — could the German citizens interned in the camp at the Isle of Man do something similar? Pilates developed what would later become his namesake: a regimen of repetitive, controlled body movements with minimal equipment focused on flexibility and strength. Before it became synonymous with luxury workout leggings and YouTube videos, Pilates the exercise was a lifeline, born literally in a cage.
The practice has come a long way since, especially in the last few years. An industry report found Pilates is the fastest-growing mode of exercise, and subscription service ClassPass named it the most popular class type of 2024. Along with the boom, there is a new wave of cultural cachet — and sometimes ridicule — that comes with practicing Pilates, the same way yoga strayed from its roots to become part of the crunchy wellness culture of the 2010s. On TikTok, there is a formula for much of the most popular #pilates content: Influencers take turns posting from packed classes in mirrored, minimalist studios; smooth, algorithm-bait pop songs soundtrack clips of slender women, sweat dripping from every inch of their bodies. Pilates has ascended beyond being simply an exercise modality: It is a key part of a certain idealized life of leisure, affluence, beauty, and, importantly, virality. There is often matcha involved.
Antoinette Hocbo had gone to a Pilates class years ago, in her early 20s, and swore off it immediately. “I hated it. It was awful. And I was like, ‘I’m never doing Pilates again,’” Hocbo says. Then, this summer, the TikTok content started.
Hocbo had been looking to incorporate more exercise in her life: She had used ChatGPT to come up with workout plans and had searched on TikTok for fitness content. Soon enough, her algorithmic recommendation-fueled For You page was filled with related videos. Hocbo recalls the exact moment she was influenced: A content creator popped up, extolling the virtues of a specific Pilates instructor (she followed neither person). The endorsements in the video were glowing — this instructor’s videos will change your life. Beach weather was coming, and much of the content fed off the timeliness of getting a “summer body.” Hocbo decided to give Pilates another try and purchased the instructor’s online class ($199), along with a Pilates ball and blocks.
It wasn’t the only hobby she picked up because of TikTok. During one stretch, her For You page was a stream of artists using the drawing app Procreate. Though Hocbo had studied illustration, she had never tried it that way, and she was drawn to the idea of rebuilding with her creative practice. “I was getting lots of videos of people doing animation on their iPads, and I was like, ‘Do I need to buy an iPad?’” She picked up a used one on Facebook Marketplace.
Though she previously didn’t care much for makeup, her algorithm delivered influencers’ GRWM (Get Ready With Me) videos, where they meticulously narrate their makeup routines, complete with every product they use; pretty soon Hocbo found herself buying the same arsenal of minimal no-makeup-makeup concealers and foundations. One time-consuming product that she was successfully influenced into buying is a lip stain that she must paint on, wait 10 minutes for the color to tint her lips, and then peel off. She saw it on TikTok Shop.
“I get mad every time I use it,” Hocbo says. “These TikTok people convinced me this is the way, but now I have this stupid part of my makeup routine because of them.”
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