ANTI-AGEING, BIOHACKING, LOOKSMAXXING. Face lifts, Botox, fillers, rapamycin, Resveratrol, Senolytics… the list goes on. A whole ecosystem, offering us a shot at perfection, has exploded in the last decade, driven at speed by social media.

Don’t want to get old? No problem, here’s an exhaustive list of all the things you NEED to start doing today, before it’s too late… because the clock is ticking, and none of us wants to end up with grey hair and aching joints. Perish the thought.

And your face! If you aren’t injecting Botox by the age of 16, it’s game over. Kiss your youthful looks goodbye. No one will love you with wrinkles. And of course, skincare begins at age nine; we all know that.

Dementia! How to avoid it: Two tablespoons of this supplement a day should do the trick. Or how about this enzyme, that protein? You’re nothing without these… what have you been doing with your life?

Our algorithms act as trumpeteers for this new world, peddling a daily dose of content from ‘pioneers’ in these fields… the so-called experts, led out front by the biohacking bros. And the poster boy for the movement is Bryan Johnson.

Bryan Johnson is the poster boy for the biohacking and anti-ageing movement. Instagram Instagram

Biohacking has become a buzzword for everything from boosted brainpower, enhanced endurance, to increased youthfulness and everything in between. With its ties to the tech world, it is marketed as the ultimate optimisation of mind and body. 

And this new world of mostly pseudoscience is aimed at women, men, young and old. There are, of course, exciting new studies showing the benefits of some of the advice on offer, but, in the main, as with all things driven by tech, if you’re locked in hard to the online longevity space, you’re not necessarily in safe hands.

The real life dangers

This constant flood of unsubstantiated advice and fixation on eternal youth is not harmless; it brings real-world risks. This week, the manosphere-adjacent “looksmaxxing” trend veered into dangerous territory when a prominent figure, Clavicular, was hospitalised mid-livestream following what The Hollywood Reporter called a “suspected overdose”.

'Looksmaxxing influencer' Clavicular was hospitalised last night after a suspected overdose on livestream. Instagram Instagram

Real name Braden Peters, the 20-year-old is said to be in a stable condition after the episode, which alerted his fans watching the livestream at the time. There is no clarity as to what caused him to collapse, but he remains a key player in this worrying new trend. 

Aimed directly at young men, looksmaxxing sells the benefits of extensive exercise, grooming, dietary and beauty routines, including supplements like testosterone, so that someday soon, you too can become the perfect man.

Borne out of the incel subculture, the extreme end of looksmaxxing includes a practice called ‘bone smashing’, the breaking of facial bones with a hammer to realign the jaw. Not recommended.

Clavicular recently cut short an interview........

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