From looks to fibre to friction, we’re in our maxxing era
For the non-chronically online, ‘maxxing’ is internet slang (derived from ‘maximising’) that refers to optimising an aspect of your life, usually in an extreme way. It became popularised thanks to ‘looksmaxxing’ but has since creeped into the vernacular by being attached to a variety of different topics and with varying degrees of irony. It’s basically the ‘-gate’ of the brain rot era.
Let’s go back to where it all began: looksmaxxing. This is an online male beauty subculture centred around maximising physical attractiveness – chiselled jawlines, high cheekbones, “hunter” eyes, ripped bodies – in an effort to increase your “sexual market value” and conform to social media ideals of masculinity. It encompasses everything from skincare and exercising (softmaxxing) to plastic surgeries, steroid use and bone smashing (hardmaxxing) to achieve the desired effects.
Looksmaxxing has existed incel forums for years but has transitioned to mainstream social media thanks to (extremely problematic) influencers like Clavicular. Another manosphere-based spin-off is jestermaxxing, the practice of cracking jokes, using humour and being silly to attract attention and gain social clout.
Why are these new slang terms breaking through? Streamers and influencers like Clavicular are “extremely effective attention hijackers”, leveraging their popularity to infiltrate politics and the news agenda. There’s also money changing hands. Clippers, people who clip other content like livestreams, TV shows and podcasts into short form videos for social media, use these terms in their captions to create the most clickable content, and they can be paid, by platforms or by content creators, for producing viral content. “The internet is always giving us new words and new terms. Sure, “jestermaxxing” will eventually sound old and cringe (perhaps soon, even), but this is the beautiful bounty of online communication. New ways of communicating and expressing!” writes Katie Notopolous in Business Insider. “In this case, it also seems relevant to keep in mind that the new memewords are being pushed by people who are chasing dollars, not just lols.”
Where memes go, others follow in the hope of capturing their own piece of the zeitgeist, meaning we have many more maxxings to contend with. In food, there’s proteinmaxxing and fibremaxxing, wellness trends advocating for increased protein and fibre consumption. Protein has been the diet fad du jour – you can’t move for high-protein products in the supermarkets and high-protein recipes on social media – but fibre is taking its crown this year. 96% of UK adults don’t actually get enough fibre in their diets so the fibremaxxing trend is actually giving this nutrient some much-needed attention, though, as ever, there is such a thing as too much.
If modern technology and its myriad conveniences – like getting Chat GPT to write your emails and Uber Eats to supply your dinner – is robbing you of feeling a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, you can engage in friction-maxxing. According to Kathryn Jezer-Morton, this is where you build up a tolerance for things that are inconvenient with the goal of achieving enjoyment because “an orientation toward friction is really the only defense we have against the life-annihilating suction of technologies of escape.”
Sound like too much hard work? Try regular-maxxing instead. By regularly visiting the same shops, cafes and restaurants, you can reap the benefits that come with familiarity, whether that be finding real social connection or getting a good parking space, rather than expend energy constantly chasing the new. It’s a way to feel special in the age of social atomisation. As Alice Jasmine Crippa explains for Protein, “Techno-centric solutions promoting fabricated loyalty clearly work. But it will never feel the same as receiving something from another human being who had no obligation to give it. That unpredictability – the serendipity – is precisely what makes it meaningful.”
When will maxxing get maxxed out? Not just yet because, as you may have seen from the hot water drinking, congee eating and tai chi practicing on TikTok, we’re China-maxxing right now.
