Are you okay? I’m not, but also sometimes I am. It’s okay not to be okay! Mental health affects everyone in different ways and its normal to struggle with your own. Personally I have been dealing with aspects related to my mental health for as long as I can remember. There are many factors that can affect me, but today I really want to focus on the influence of social media.
I am incredibly active on social media. I strive to post on Instagram multiples times a week and I livestream on a social media app almost everyday. Not to mention, I also continuously consume social media content.
It can feel so good to create a successful social media post or receive a ton of support during a specific livestream. However, not every post and every stream can be satisfying or my definition of successful.
It can become almost impossible not to constantly compare myself to the content creation, support and praise that others may receive. I can find myself falling into a rut due to feelings of inadequacy. That then leads to lack of creativity, motivation and generally feeling insufficient.
Sometimes I can’t help but think ‘Why am I not good enough?’ and ‘Why don’t people like me?’. It doesn’t matter that I know that I am good enough and I know that people do like me, I still feel this way at times.
Now I am not here to say ‘Just don’t compare yourself.’ ‘You can’t let that get to you.’, because those aren’t solutions. Truly, the only thing that has really helped is limiting my social media consumption.
I create and post content I am personally proud of. I try not to worry about my content performance and praise even though those concerns still creep up now and again. Anxiety and envy related to social media still affects me now and again. But, I am not here to give a solution to fix that. Nor am I here to tell you to find a way to fix it yourself.
I am here to tell you that if you feel this way about social media I do too! If you also feel this way that means there are so many others who also feel the exact same. Instead of worrying, unapologetically put yourself out there!
Sometimes it won’t feel the best, but I believe that the majority of the time it will feel incredible to just be yourself! Don’t let the facade of social media perfect fool you, we all have our own demons to fight.
Author: Vic
Instagram: @vic.ansell