It’s capitalism on ginger shots: Why I’ll never join the TikTok 5am-9am brigade

The TikTok trend of getting up and filming yourself being productive before starting your nine-to-five job is unrealistic, but it’s also an advertiser’s dream

The '5-9 before my 9-5' trend shows people filming themselves getting up at 5am to do tasks before they begin a 9-5 job. Photo: Getty.

Siún Lennon

March 04 2023 02:11 PM

If your algorithm is anything like mine, there's no doubt you've probably seen the “5-9 before your 9-5” trend on TikTok and Instagram. If it's not, a quick explainer is that it shows people (usually young, usually beautiful, usually rich) filming themselves getting up at 5am to do tasks before they begin a nine-to-five job.

These tasks usually include: making 14 kale smoothies, going on a 10km run, curing the world of infectious diseases. Oddly enough, there's something strangely soothing about watching someone power-hose their magnificent bathroom when you yourself have a stack of dishes in the sink and a laundry basket folding over under its own weight.

As soothing as it can be to watch someone clean all around them, it can feel like an advertisement to do something different with your own life. "Why can't I answer emails for 15 minutes and that be it for my working day?" "Why don't I have four different serums on my face?" "Would my life be better if I owned a Stanley cup?"

The truth is, the “5-9 before your 9-5” TikTok trend is not capitalism on steroids, but capitalism on ginger shots and scented candles. The sheer volume of product placement in these 30-second videos is an advertiser's dream. Now instead of even having to talk about the product, we can see young, beautiful, rich people using said products and to other young people it correlates to “if I buy X, my life will be like this”.

What is notable about most of the people who make these TikToks and Instagram reels is that is it literally their job. The vast majority are content creators. They are doing their jobs with affiliate links, and no doubt getting back to bed once they are finished.

To expect yourself to do this unpaid work on top of paid work and be perfectly groomed and filtered during it is exhausting to even think about. Another point worth stating is that most of the people making these videos don't seem to have children. If you started vacuuming at 6am for the ’gram, your toddler wouldn't be too long letting you know that they're upset about it.

These videos and edits are fine in themselves if we take them for what they are. Edits. No one wakes up with perfectly groomed hair and the cameras rolling at 5am, this isn't The Truman Show. No one should feel pressure on themselves to get up at 5am and be “productive” before actually beginning their job at 9am. Having a false sense of productivity benefits no one. The entire population would be walking zombies come 3pm if we somehow managed to clean our home, go to the gym and made numerous green smoothies all before the crack of dawn.

That's not to say that I am against morning people, or productivity in general. I myself am I morning person (my family might disagree with this). However, when I wake up in the morning I am not as productive as possible while looking uber-glamorous (my family will not disagree with that). Productivity isn't the bad guy here, but a false sense of it is.