What is a winter arc?

"It's day one. This is your fourth quarter. Everything that happened prior to this? Throw that shit out the window. Three months. That's all it takes. And bro it's going to get cold out. Trust me. You gonna fold? Or are you gonna weather the storm? Lock in, cancel out the noise, and go dark. It's your time. It's always been your time."

This is the exact text from a very real TikTok video with 1.7 million views describing a trend: the winter arc. Winter arc is locking in for three full months. Winter arc is in the gym. Winter arc is alpha male and That Girl. Winter arc is wearing a hoodie. Winter arc is "going dark" and emerging a beautiful butterfly but in a really manly way. Winter arc means New Year's is October 1 now. I am so lost. Please help me.

The rules seem to differ by gender, goal, and vibe, but there is an overarching intention. You must lose fat, gain muscle, and "meet your goals," which always seem to be losing fat and gaining muscle. Here's are some of the actual winter arc rules I've seen from TikTok users:

• Shave your head

• Exercise

• Wear an oversized black hoodie and black jogger set

• Break up with your girl

• Wake up at 5:30 a.m.

• Journal twice a day

• Read four books

• Follow a diet

• Create your own daily list

• Get eight hours of sleep

• Walk 10,000 steps daily

• Post on social media twice a day or maybe delete your social media and never post?

• Lock! In!!

I am sensing some issues with the winter arc. For instance, it's actually not winter at all, but very much autumn. The connection between these obsessive self-betterment trends that encourage people to reject community and the male loneliness epidemic seems worth noting. It's evident that this is a tool influencers use to promote their classes or personal training programs. It's basically a rebrand of 75 Hard, a (largely debunked) fitness and wellness trend with incredibly high demands.

Even more insidious yet, this is a prime example of how social media — and the economic system it's built upon — feeds off of your feelings of inferiority.

It's easy to want to follow something when it seems healthy, as some of the pieces of this trend are. Exercise is good for you, journaling and reading can help your mental health, and working towards your goals is not a bad way to spend time. These are effective forms of self-care. But we get into some dark territory when we force ourselves to reach for unattainable goals and replicate the performative aesthetics of creators who promote aspirational lifestyles that are not actually realistic or attainable for many of us.

Trends like this take our focus away from our community and instead places the attention inward, which might make you think this is about you. It is not about you.

Stephanie Alice Baker, a senior lecturer in sociology at the City University of London, told Mashable for a 2022 story about the productivity aesthetic that while these kinds of trends might seem like "individual pursuits," they actually rely on "the broader system in which they're operating," be that capitalism or the patriarchy. Two years later, her words still ring true.

"The technologies change, the technologies evolve, but there is still this underlying impulse towards self-improvement, and it is always self-improvement in relation to the system in which it operates as opposed to an isolated individual trying to be their best self," Baker said.

Society is always looking for ways to encourage people to perfect themselves — not for themselves, but for the system.

Also, it's not winter!!!