Today, a blue, pen-sized, weight-loss injectable is devouring the internet. Like waving a magic wand and a wish comes true, the injectable has become society's magic touch for transforming one's most desirable self into a reality. In only 6 seconds, users are coming closer to achieving their dream appearances by slowly injecting the magic drug into their abdomen or arm. This wand-like pen is better known as Ozempic. With #Ozempic at almost 1.3 billion views, it is nearly impossible to escape the "miracle" weight loss drug on your screen. As society's obsession with body image and diet culture remains, social media pushes an unhealthy narrative where diet alternatives like Ozempic become the answer to fixing one's body image.
Unlike weight management tools in the past, Novo Nordisk's Ozempic has transformed individuals' relationships when navigating food. Ozempic, a brand drug with Semaglutide, is a prescription medication for patients with type 2 diabetes that slows the movement of food, lowering the amount of sugar in the bloodstream. The medication mirrors the natural manufacturing of the body's hormone called GLP-1. Yet Ozempic's ability to redefine patients' gut and brain connection with food keeps the drug in the spotlight. A new food environment has been built for patients on Ozempic, where the food choices they once made have drastically changed. As users inject themselves with GLP-1 weekly, they say goodbye to their cravings, feeling full. Now, the inner voices that once shamed patients have gone silent, differing from past weight loss options that didn't offer a low-effort fix, making a "game changer" drug.
Ozempic allows patients with diabetes to lose an average of 9.3 LB to 14.1 LB to help obtain a healthy weight. Despite the weight loss effects, the drug has only been approved for diabetes. Recognizing the aesthetic impact of the drug, in 2021, Novo Nordisk obtained FDA approval for Wegovy, a drug similar to Ozempic but marketed toward patients with obesity. Wegovy allows those who crave a thinner appearance to access this new weight-loss tool. However, to fully notice weight results and quiet the "food noise" inside one's head, users must make a lifelong commitment to the injectable. Not surprisingly, demand for Wegovy sky-rocketed, leading many who itched for weight-loss solutions to find off-label Ozempic from any source.
While society is no stranger to weight loss techniques, Ozempic ties with social media differ from alternative diet methods promoted in the past. From the "rainbow diet pills" in the 1940s (containing amphetamines and diuretics ) to the 1990s fen pen (fenfluramine and phentermine), the hunt for safe and effective weight loss drugs has been a long search. Therefore, with the attention on Ozempic's miracle-like weight effects, especially with celebrities guiding the promotion, users are easily influenced to believe it is a "wonder drug". New York dermatologic surgeon Paul Jarrod Frank, MD, shared with Vogue that "other than Viagra and Botox, I've seen no other medication so quickly become part of modern culture's social vernacular." Celebrities advertising their Ozempic journeys online has intensified the need to gain access to the drug in comparison to past popular weight loss drugs. Social media and diet culture are a dangerous pair as they are changing users' mindsets that we must consciously fix ourselves to achieve a certain body. With social media amplifying fatphobia for users, users are pushed to the ultimate test of making the lifelong commitment to injections to achieve a "perfect body".
Like TikTok stars, who achieve fame overnight, Ozempic quickly became an internet sensation. #OzempicWeightLoss is catching up to 429.6 million shares throughout TikTok and is the main course on social media, cooking up an unhealthy lifestyle for users. While society's hyper-fixation with thin bodies started to wane due to body positivity movements, Ozempic redirects today's outlook on beauty. Celebrities whose faces have "mysteriously" thinned have enticed users to join the Ozempic craze. Thanks to misleading promoted self-care and beauty posts by celebrities, social media swallows Ozempic into a utopia of online wellness. As celebrities like Oprah Winfrey endorse Ozempic, users become enticed to get their hands on the drug.
examples of the online popularity surrounding Ozempic
As users cling to trends on their screens, they enter a dangerous universe where the looks of Instagram filters become the object of desire. Social media perpetuation of wellness goals has morphed the belief that injecting away one's hunger is the answer to a dream body while ignoring personal insecurities. When we turn to social media for health advice, users join the cycle of deceiving information, unable to escape the damage to one's self-perception. Although medical professionals repeatedly discourage GLP-1 medication for aesthetics, society is blind to the consequences. As TikTok algorithms push weight loss content, Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs become yet another virtual wellness trend where users put their health in their own hands. Nevertheless, social media does it again, turning a medical breakthrough into a ploy for unsustainable beauty.
The social pressure to drop a size creates difficulty for people with type 2 diabetes and obesity to access a drug that is medically required as a result of increased off-label requests. Ozempics' online appearance proves that diet culture is here to stay, where accepting one's body size is regarded as strange. With social media driven by facades, users' thirst for Ozempic is a reminder that the line between healthy and unhealthy is easily blurred online.
I thought this piece was incredibly well written and woke. I, myself, have witnessed the rise of popularity in Ozempic and #Ozempic on instagram, so seeing and reading more about this drug is super interesting. I enjoyed your approach at writing about this topic, making it incredibly informative, while also being a very easy read.
This piece touches on and provides insights into an important topic: Ozempic's rise to fame as a weight-loss solution and its impact on society's beauty standards, fueled by social media and celebrity endorsements. Learning about Ozempic's medical background as a diabetes medication and its transformation into a cultural phenomenon for weight loss raised my awareness of the issue. The discussion on the dangers of conflating medical treatments with aesthetic goals and the role of social media in amplifying this trend shed light on the interactions between wellness and the internet, which I find very relevant today. I also enjoyed reading about the ethical concerns and accessibility issues arising from the off-label use of medical drugs for cosmetic purposes.
I thought this piece was incredibly well written and woke. I, myself, have witnessed the rise of popularity in Ozempic and #Ozempic on instagram, so seeing and reading more about this drug is super interesting. I enjoyed your approach at writing about this topic, making it incredibly informative, while also being a very easy read.
This piece touches on and provides insights into an important topic: Ozempic's rise to fame as a weight-loss solution and its impact on society's beauty standards, fueled by social media and celebrity endorsements. Learning about Ozempic's medical background as a diabetes medication and its transformation into a cultural phenomenon for weight loss raised my awareness of the issue. The discussion on the dangers of conflating medical treatments with aesthetic goals and the role of social media in amplifying this trend shed light on the interactions between wellness and the internet, which I find very relevant today. I also enjoyed reading about the ethical concerns and accessibility issues arising from the off-label use of medical drugs for cosmetic purposes.