The internet is changing its mind on maxxing mania

Maxxers had their moment of glory. Now it is the anti-maxxers who are calling the shots as they embrace a radical concept in the year 2026: being good enough.

After a decade being swept up in hyper-optimization fads such as “looksmaxxing,” “mewing” and “bonesmashing,” fresh conversation around self-improvement suggests the tide has turned.

Data from audience intelligence platform Pulsar shows that anti-maxxing conversations and trends, so-called “whimsy-maxxing” or “half-assing” have increased fifteenfold over the past six months, while “pro-maxxing” discourse fell by 19%.

A January post by @addietheoptimist encouraging people to embrace “half-assing” has accumulated a staggering 464.000 likes and nearly 17,000 shares on Instagram alone.

“’Pro-maxxing’ volume keeps growing, but ‘counter-maxxing’ is growing even faster – and has now overtaken it,” Dahye Lee, innovation lead at Pulsar, told Newsweek.

“Counter-maxxing” celebrates playfulness and unconventionality, with related trends like “cosymaxxing” or “nonnamaxxing” centering on pleasure and making everyday life feel more enjoyable, pushing back against the idea that every aspect of the self needs to be optimized, Lee explains.

Gen Z expert Hana Ben-Shabat agrees and notes that anti-maxing trends such as “lazy girl”’ and “good enough” embrace self-deprecating irony, further indicating extreme forms of maxxing have definitely lost their prestige.

Is maxxing officially dead though? Not quite.

Pulsar’s data suggest people are embracing “counter-maxxing” as an alternative narrative rather than rejecting toxic maxxing altogether.

While it continues to mutate—recent “solo-maxxing” trend is another manifestation—Gen Z is rejecting self-improvement if it is expected to be relentless, visible, expensive and totalizing.

Much of the debate naturally reflects broader exhaustion with the pressure to optimise every aspect of one’s life. “If the purpose of maxxing is to feel better, but you end up feeling drained and depleted, then maxxing defeats its own purpose,” Ben-Shabat stresses. “Self-improvement is still a priority for Gen Z, just with a sharper focus on the return on effort.”

Additionally, Psychotherapist Claire Law stresses research suggests “anti-maxxing” trends promote psychological flexibility, a quality directly linked to mental health and wellbeing.

She contrasted these in conversation with Newsweek, with the self-discrepancy theory, according to which a greater gap between the real self and the idealized self leads to greater frustration and unhappiness.

“‘Good enough’ and similar trends in this way are helping young people get rid of the pressure caused by the continuous chasing of an impossible ideal,” Law said.