How real people feel about... “maxxing” culture.

Self-improvement is nothing new, but front-facing cameras and social media pressure have intensified people’s relationships with their own sense of self. Fitness, appearance, careers, productivity and even sleep can all be measured, improved and squeezed for more. Internet culture has dubbed this "maxxing". We spoke to a handful of real people across the UK, outside the marketing bubble, about how much they feel that pressure and what they do in response. We found a difference between what people say and what they do; often rejecting the idea of optimisation culture while describing behaviours that fit it well. The pressure to improve didn’t always seem to come from grand ambition, rather sometimes it was simply about keeping up.

Summary

• We're optimising without thinking of it as optimisation

• "Better" increasingly means not falling behind

• Every feed has its own version of better

• Scepticism doesn't make us immune

• Wellness overload can send people back to basics

• Push self-improvement too hard and people start to resist it

We're optimising without thinking of it as optimisation

People rarely talked about themselves as ‘optimisers’, even when their lives contained plenty of optimisation. Learning new skills, exercising, improving diets, volunteering, taking supplements and finding ways to become more effective were simply things they did. The language of maxxing might still feel like internet culture, but many of the behaviours underneath it have become entirely normal. Optimisation has embedded itself in everyday life, while the more overt, performative versions of it still attract plenty of scepticism.

"I don't think my little side hustles are all about performance, it's more about giving back to my community and stuff like that." – Greg, 40

“I think most people just want to be happy in life. They don't have to be at the very top of their possibilities... Most people just want to be kind of in the middle.” – Donna, 53

“I try to eat healthier... try to connect with the nature, be a bit more outdoorsy... do hikes, drink a lot more water. I'm more of a go with the flow kind of person.” – Chris, 39

“Better” increasingly means not falling behind

Self-improvement can sound aspirational, but some of the pressure we heard felt more defensive. Keeping skills current, understanding AI and staying useful at work were ways of avoiding being left behind as much as getting ahead. The pressure to keep improving can feel less like ambition and more like insurance against falling behind, especially in the workplace. That anxiety has some basis in reality: the World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of workers' existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030.

"There's definitely a sort of pressure in life from when you're a kid to sort of make something of yourself... that sort of justifies you existing, where you can't really just like chill and do the stuff you want to do." – Sam, 20

"Technology is getting so advanced now you feel like you need to [keep up], otherwise, you're going to be on the back foot." – Sonal, 49

“I think a lot of the side hustles did stem during COVID, so people had to make ends meet, or had to sort of adapt.” – Greg, 40

Every feed has its own version of better

People recognise that optimisation culture changes depending on where you spend your time. Instagram and TikTok might fill a feed with fitness, appearance and wellness, while LinkedIn creates its own pressures around skills and professional relevance. And once something catches our attention, algorithms can make it feel far more culturally dominant than it really is. A single interest can quickly become a stream of people telling us how we could be healthier, richer, more productive or otherwise improved.

"As soon as you look at a feed for it once, that's it, they're just going to throw it at you all the time." – Donna, 53

"If it's Insta, if it's TikTok, whatever it is, that's more on fitness, health and things like that. Whereas obviously with, when you go to LinkedIn, it's more professional, so it's more like, right, you need to brush up on your AI." – Sonal, 49

"It's just to get views. If it's on social media, it's just for views. They're probably making money out of it." – Chris, 39

Scepticism doesn't make us immune

There was plenty of suspicion about influencers and people monetising self-improvement, but that does not necessarily stop the messages working. People can question the person making the recommendation and still remember the product, consider the advice or eventually make a purchase. Repetition and familiarity can still cut through, even when people know they are being sold to.

Recent UK research from the ASA found a similar gap: around half of people felt confident recognising influencer advertising, yet only around half could confidently identify an influencer post as an advert when shown one, while more than a quarter failed to recognise influencer ads at all.

“I used to love Steven Bartlett’s podcast… I stopped listening to it because he does push all these different brands, doesn’t he?” – Greg, 40

“I got the girls to buy me a very well-known American makeup brand because I kept on advertising on my social media. I kept on looking at it, going, hmm, it actually could be quite good. So, I'm not immune to it, but I tend to view things with a great degree of scepticism.” – Donna, 53

" A lot of, what people don't understand a lot of the time as well is most of it's not real... A lot of it's just, it's edited, it's faked." – Sam, 20

Wellness overload can send people back to basics

More products, advice and information do not necessarily create greater appetite for optimisation. For some people, the sheer number of things promising better health makes the wellness category harder to navigate and pushes them towards simpler habits they already understand. Walking, eating reasonably well and drinking water may sound rather unexciting beside adaptogens and the latest supplement stack, but familiarity can become reassuring when every week seems to produce another thing we ought to be taking, tracking or avoiding. Making improvement feel manageable may be more persuasive than turning everyday health into another project.

"No, just put on your boots and go out and walk. That's basically what I do." – Chris, 39

"There's so many products out there promising the earth. Who do you believe? Who do you not believe?... rather than going too in depth into these things, I just tend to not look at them at all." – Donna, 53

"A lot of stuff's been thrown at people with the sort of promise of good health and sort of like a short way, when it's actually quite a long process." – Sam, 20

Push self-improvement too hard and people start to resist it

There was also evidence that constant encouragement to improve can eventually have the opposite effect. Messages about being your best are easy to agree with in principle, but repetition can turn encouragement into pressure and pressure into something people want to ignore. Psychology has a name for part of this: reactance. Perhaps optimisation works best when people still feel that improving themselves was their idea. A 2025 meta-analysis found that more controlling, freedom-threatening language produced greater anger, negative thoughts and resistance, with those reactions associated with lower persuasion.

"If it wasn't so consistent, then I think it would have worked a bit better... they'd like, plaster it everywhere, and it kind of started looking a bit like... propaganda and stuff." – Sam, 20

"I'm the kind of person, if I'm told to do something, I am quite likely to actually do the opposite, just because." – Donna, 53

"Social media has become a bit of a, like a bit of a brag, hasn't it, in terms of I'm doing this." – Greg, 40