Social media has created a new world of connecting and interacting. But how can interaction with posts, videos and comments affect an athlete mindset and their performance? Read more here...
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Post, share, comment…social media seems to endlessly evolve and work its way into our lives. Depending on your perspective, social media can be positive, negative, or both. Especially in the world of athletics, social media offers the ability to connect fans with their teams, provide players a getaway, make connections and so much more. However, when not taken seriously or monitored, social media can become a toxic source affecting athletes mentally.
Now don’t get me wrong, social media is very useful and the effects of social media also depend on the person and how they monitor their time on it. But that being said, many athletes who’ve encountered more signs of stress, anxiety, and depression revolved around social media as a main factor. The average person spends around 2-2.5 hours on social media per day with a higher usage shown in those who are younger. Countless athletes in the world of sports report increased stress, anxiety, and depression from social media usage. This can be a result of the comparison to other individuals, jealousy, and possible lack of attention to the individual's account. Especially in the social media world where some of the population of content creators (someone who creates material to share with others, primarily digitally) are athletes. The lack of follows, likes, support, or feedback on personal content they produce can also cause emotional changes in personal mindset due to feeling unaccomplished or not seen.
From personal experience, social media was very useful because I was able to follow accounts to find new ideas or drills for training, information on nutrition, and motivation to help improve my performance. Of course, I would also from time to time get pulled into watching videos or looking at other posts to distract myself and get my mind off other thoughts I had. It wasn’t until later I realized what I thought was helping me was affecting me psychologically, creating more pressure for myself, and ultimately affecting me in all aspects of my life. I was constantly scrolling and finding myself consumed in the realm of social media. I found I was starting to compare myself to other players and became jealous of the lives others were living. This affected me and caused me to become more stressed, depressed, and anxious about what I didn’t have that those individuals did have. For example, I found myself constantly comparing myself and thinking, “How the heck can I become a professional athlete when I’m 21 and there are players 15, 16, and 17 starting and playing professionally already?”
Frequently, I found myself in that frame of mind. Even though I was constantly having those thoughts from watching videos or seeing posts of the success other people were having, I was still stuck on social media regardless. It would cause me to stress, worry, doubt myself and my ability, and rethink if it was even a good idea to pursue playing professionally. This played a major role in affecting my performance by clouding my mindset and constantly playing with doubt in my head instead of trusting in my ability.
This is just one scenario out of many that affected me whenever I decided to go on my phone. Social media is a worldwide tool that can connect and share information. But, that information can become detrimental to an individual in athletics if they aren’t appropriately monitoring their health from their time on social media. I eventually had to set boundaries and use the time limit setting on any social media app to block me from too much screen time and the things that were affecting me. Not only did I limit the amount of time, but I unfollowed accounts that were affecting me the most and eventually deleted my account for a while to restart and see what would happen. Disconnecting myself from the source, as you can imagine, helped significantly in avoiding comparison to others and other negative thoughts created by social media.
Athletes are part of many that are being affected by social media in this way. Although there are many benefits, social media has created an environment that can affect the mental side of athletes and individuals in general if not appropriately monitored. From my own experiences, I allowed myself to be consumed by social media and shape my ideas and behavior affecting my overall performance. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok can all be forms of entertainment that can provide as a getaway before or after training and in free time. It may sound obvious at first, but, check in with yourself, and monitor how you are feeling. If you find yourself feeling down, jealous, upset or any negative feeling at all while on social media, take a break. Help your mind and your mental health, don’t let your performance be defined by a video, story, or a post, but you and only you.
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