The reaction of Ruby's fans to any criticism is hardly surprising (Jack Edwards' fans react the same braindead rabid-attack-mode way to critical comments), but man, what a bunch of gullible people.
"She's just showing her life! You don't have to imitate it!"
It's not her life, though.
It's completely fabricated with a very clear purpose: To show herself doing more in a day than is physically possible, to make herself seem more impressive and to make viewers feel like they'll never be as good as Ruby. Because they can't. It is literally impossible to do the amount of work Ruby pretends to do - it's 48+ hours presented as a 12 hour day via the magic of (sloppy) editing.
If you're paying attention, it's not hard to spot the seams - the continuity errors, the lies, the fake off-screen activities, all the undeclared ads for products she doesn't use, the 67 outfit changes a "day" - but if you're young and impressionable, you're more likely to buy into it and believe it's real. Her comments section is flooded with people too young or too gullible to know better, who point out how jealous they are that Ruby accomplishes so much and they feel unproductive by comparison.
That's why Ruby makes these videos. It's for that hollow, cruel little boost she gets from seeing people weigh themselves up to her and feel like they come up short. That makes Ruby feel better about her obvious inadequacies and it makes her feel more valuable as an influencer.
Because that's the ultimate goal: To leave students chasing an unattainable goal while Ruby acts like she's the person with the secret to doing in her sleep - someone to be emulated - while selling overpriced "academic essentials" and serving up undeclared-ad-filled "study tips" videos and sponsored (undeclared) products to help you on your way to being JOHST LOIKE HARR.
Ruby prides herself on that influencer position of power to the point where she uses it to sell herself and her brand. She brags about her follower numbers on LinkedIn and states that she uses her platforms to get students to "maximise their potential, both academically and outside of school/university". Ruby herself is out there saying that kids see her as a role model and imitate her, so this "she's not really an influencer!" shit doesn't hold water.
"She always puts disclaimers to show that toxic productivity is bad and she doesn't agree with it!"
She puts half-assed, lip-service disclaimers on videos in which she does and promotes the exact thing she claims to disagree with. A disclaimer would hold more weight if she ever accepted responsibility for her part in propagating those toxic habits for the entirety of her influencer career, or it clearly stated that her videos and their depicted timelines were staged.
But she'll never do that, and until she stops presenting an impossible goal as an attainable reality, she's going to get a lot of impressionable people following the blueprint she's set out: Drink water non-stop, never eat a nutritious meal, work yourself to death, always be productive, use BONKERBRADACTIVITY planners, all your downtime MOSST BEE PRODOCKTIVE, your boredom MOSST BEE PRODOCKTIVE.
It's dangerous and reprehensible, and she's been warned enough times to know better, but she simply doesn't care. She is not "sweet", she is not "lovely", she doe not "mean well". She knows exactly what she's doing and the damage she does and she'll never stop, because she cares more about that hollow ego boost and her flow of cash than she does about anything or anyone else.
"She doesn't make that kind of content any more though! Her content is super chill and cosy now!"
Her content is exactly the same, there's just less mention of school/uni (but still a baffling amount considering she's a grown woman who graduated a year ago). She's still presenting the same brand of toxic, unattainable productivity with her content in every single video.
"...and THAN OIY had a meeting, AND THAN OIY ran THARTEE MOYLES and THAN OIY wryote a bohk, and THAN OIY radd THARTEE BOHKS and than OIY cleaned moiy house, and than OIY RAN MOIY varry yown BUSINESS SINGLE-HAWNDEDLY and THAN OIYY STODDIED FOR THARTEE OWWERS, AND THAN OIY did some WAHHHRK."
That's every video. That's every Instagram post of a planner. A non-stop onslaught of "VARRY BUSY, VARRY PRODUCTIVE" activities all crammed into an impossible space of time. "Impossible" being the operative word.
Every reading vlog has to emphasise the wildly embellished number of books read or the pages read per hour first and foremost and yet nothing is said about the content of the book. It's all fake.
She's changed the nature of the things she does in her "day" in videos, but it's all the same fabricated, toxic, hustle culture bullshit she's always made.
"She clearly enjoys studying and being productive though!"
The utterly miserable mope on her face at all times and the strained, fake grimace that she can't hold for more than a few seconds suggests otherwise...
If she enjoyed studying, she'd be content just showing and talking about the actual study she does, what she learned, what she enjoys about it, rather than very clearly lie and fabricate events to boost her accomplishments.
But she doesn't. She lies. She makes shit up. She stages all her videos. She has nothing to say about the things she does, it's just a laundry list of fabricated activities and robotic, parroted quotes sandwiched between undeclared ads for shitty products.
This isn't enjoyment, it's a toxic productivity numbers game, where Ruby needs to put her thumb on the scale to come out on top and make herself seem more impressive, intelligent and efficient.
If that thing on our left is a mirror (?) there's at least one reflected person, plus the host.
