The Dangers of Social Media

       Is social media a danger to our mental health? The short answer is yes: social media dramatically impacts our psychological and physical health. Excessive use of social media can cause feelings of anxiety or depression and even body image issues. Social media can also cause people to become addicted to the idea that their life needs to mirror the person presenting the video or post.

    This blog post isn’t the usual kind of content I discuss, but I feel this topic is important to address. This week, I was doing some homework and decided to take a quick brain break after spending two hours on an assignment for one of my classes. Usually, I turn to YouTube when I take breaks because I enjoy the content more, but this time, I decided to go to Instagram instead—bad choice. When I opened the app, I saw videos and reels of people singing or dancing, and they were good. Like really good. I started thinking about the fact that I hadn’t been able to practice as many times as I had wanted that week due to my schedule. Those videos made me feel bad about myself because I wasn’t in the studio practicing my turns or working on my singing technique in the vocal room. All of this self-doubt stemmed from one video that someone posted to share the highlights of their life. That is essentially what people do when they post something on a social media platform: they show the great things happening to them and rarely post about the realistic things they deal with because they don’t want to show that they are struggling with a plethora of things, just like anyone else. This is not to say that everyone who posts on social media does this; some people use it as a job or actively enjoy their online presence and, therefore, try to share all aspects of their life—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

This small video made me question my ability to do anything, which is not how I want to feel. I disassociated myself from everyone else for the rest of the day because I couldn’t help but worry and plan when I could practice. Some would say social media creates motivation because it pushes people to work on the things they are behind on, and sometimes it does. However, for me (and I know this happens to others, especially in our industry), I thought I was at a plateau and wasn’t a good enough performer or artist because I wasn’t practicing as much as I wanted to. The reality is that I practiced as much as I could. Having a busy schedule and being in a show means that I sometimes won’t be able to go to a practice room for the entire week because of the other things I have to get done in addition to rehearsals. I couldn’t help but compare myself to someone with an entirely different life and schedule. In the arts industry, we are constantly being judged. When we audition for shows, we don’t need to compare ourselves to the people on social media. That will likely lead to burnout, lack of motivation, or a loss of joy for the job itself. I felt it was necessary to share a personal experience to help people understand how social media can affect us.

    I learned that I shouldn’t be on social media as much as possible because I can focus on my life and do what I can without being distracted by others. They showcase something they are good at, and I learned I have skills they don’t have. There is always room for improvement, but everything should be done at your own pace. You don’t have to overwork yourself to achieve a skill you might not even be ready for. Moderation is a great way to keep up with new information without getting addicted or sucked into the self-doubt hole. I have begun to try this new method and found that I like it a lot. I can still see what my friends are doing, but I haven’t been online long enough to compare myself to anyone. If you are also struggling with this problem, maybe try moderation and see if it helps! I understand this was super long, and I could still go into more detail because this topic is essential and needs to be discussed more.