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In this eye-opening episode, we explore the profound effects of social media on self-esteem and body image, inspired by Dr. John Duffy’s groundbreaking book, The Anxious Generation: How Social Media is Compounding Our Mental Health Crisis.
Join us as we delve into the world of carefully curated, edited, and filtered social media images that often set unrealistic beauty standards. Discover how these "perfect" portrayals can impact your self-worth and lead to negative body image.
We’ll hear from teens sharing their personal struggles with comparing themselves to influencers and dealing with feelings of inadequacy. Our episode will provide practical tips on how to protect and boost your self-esteem, including:
- Curating Your Feed: Learn how to unfollow accounts that make you feel bad and follow those that inspire and empower you.
- Managing Screen Time: Find out why setting limits on social media use is crucial for mental well-being and how to create a balanced online-offline life.
- Embracing Positivity: Explore how focusing on your unique qualities and engaging in offline activities can improve your overall self-image.
Additionally, we offer advice from mental health professionals on seeking support if you're struggling with negative self-perceptions.
Join us in this empowering discussion and discover how to make social media a space that uplifts and celebrates your true self.
For more resources and tips, visit [www.omfamilytherapy.com], follow us on Instagram @omfamilytherapy, and check out our YouTube channel @radhikasundarakrishnan5214. Remember, you are enough just as you are.
We are diving into an important topic that affects many of us. The impact of social media on self-esteem and body image. This discussion is inspired by Dr. John Duffy's book, The Anxious Generation. How social media is compounding our mental health crisis. Hey, I am Radhika Sundar, registered psychotherapist and registered marriage and family therapist. It's a social media and its impact on body image, a very, very important topic. Especially it's affecting millions and millions of us in all, almost all countries because this is beyond countries, this is beyond calling a city or a town or a small village. Everybody has been infected with the internet. So there is also a very big difference between the times when I grew up and the times that probably some of you parents grew up or the times that our children grew up. That is the rise of a phone based childhood. They just literally grew up with phones and the social media and watching them. So it just has such a big impact on them. So this topic becomes very, very important. Have you ever looked at a phone online and thought, I wish I looked like that, you're not alone. Social media is filled with images of seemingly perfect people and it can just make us question our own appearance. You just see three or four posts of a perfect family with a smile pinned on them and then you start to question yourself, what about my family is it, it's not like that. So it just builds that envy or you know it's just even that triggers that concept of comparing yourself with the other person. So what we often forget is that these images are carefully like edited, filtered, curated. They are not always a true reflection of reality. Like if you are just following someone's post on a social media for example, they are just going to post all their good times. Do we ever see somebody crying or you know somebody just having a meltdown and then posting a video about that not often and so constantly seeing these perfect images can affect our self esteem. We might start to feel like we don't measure up leading to negative thoughts about our bodies and ourselves. So this is a key point that Dr. Duffy highlights in his book. So if you have not read it, I would encourage you to you know get that book and start reading it guys. It's important to remember that everyone has insecurities. Even those people who seem perfect online, they too might be editing their lives to look a certain way and there is a whole other you know mental co-morbidity that just comes you know with the sense of control you see. So I have seen in some of my clients when they get into this too low a state of insecurity like it can be about their body or about their job condition or about their relationship issue. So what they tend to do is they will start to take control of something else. So because your brain loses a sense of control and that is the reason you feel very insecure. So it is very important now to understand that it is not about you, it's about what you are perceiving in the other person. So how can we protect our self esteem and body image? To start by being kind to yourself, recognize that your worth isn't determined by how you look or how many likes you get on the social media post that you have posted. Now I am immediately thinking about me as a yoga therapist. So when you are in a group practicing let's say a yoga posture like you have a very stiff back and you always have a problem going on to doing a bow pose. So then you start looking at the person next to you and you think oh my god they are able to touch, they are able to do this so well, I am so bad, I cannot do this. So you start comparing but at the same time it's not that competitive head in you, there is also a challenge that you take up, maybe I should just try a bit more. So sometimes it is in how you perceive things, so it is not always the same for everyone. There is a difference with every single person that who is probably practicing yoga in a yoga studio. So what I am bringing you back to think about is focus on what makes you unique and special. So if you cannot do the bow pose then if you are very good at forward folds maybe you can just focus on that and you just forget that you are very good at balancing and probably doing a standing dancer's pose or you know there can be so many other strengths that you have. Just hyper focusing on one thing that you cannot do is really not helpful. So spend time doing things you love and surround yourself with people who lift you up. Now when you are curating your social media feed I just want you to reflect on the positivity. Just want you to also think about why follow people who are making you feel insecure all the time, unfollow accounts that make you feel bad about yourself and follow those that inspire and empower you. Dr. Duffy emphasizes the importance of creating a supportive online environment. There is all those positive things that you can reach out to you know. So it is just not always like I say it is not the bow pose all the time. You can just look at your strength that is a standing pose or a forward fold. So managing screen time is also very crucial. So spending too much time on social media can lead to fitting and stress. So set limits on how long you spend online and also take regular breaks. Some of my needs time to rest and recharge and sometimes I have some of my clients come to me and talk about you know I just if I have to just take a break from my very very intense IT work then I just switch on to my Facebook page or in my Instagram. And then if they are going to follow some pose there which is just going to make them even more stressed just think about how more stress they have accumulated when they go back to their job after that small break. So really not helpful you see. So it is very important to identify what really charges you. It gives you more positive energy and I am sure it is not the social media sites. Of course it does not work for me that way. So I usually set up one hour before I go to bed or like early evening time that is when I just check my social media sites. It just helps me to you know stay in that one hour when I can just look at all the posts and you know like follow the post that I also take. So it is really important to set that boundary for yourself because you know at the end of the day it is not worth. So finding a healthy balance between online and offline activities is the key. So engage in activities that make you feel good and help you disconnect from the digital world. So if you ask me I would say jump on to your yoga mat guys. You know whenever you just get on to that insecurity go on to a yoga post that just helps you to stay connected to your body. You know I would just usually think about you know going on to a V pose or I would just even try for a small headstand or you know I would I call that as my mini headstand and this balance can improve your overall well-being and self-esteem. Because the minute you are able to get on to that yoga posture, your body, your mind and your focus, your balance everything is in sync and this just automatically regulates your nervous system and then all that insecurity just goes away. It works for me and I am sure that you would try this and see whether this works for you too. Now it is important to have open conversations about how social media makes you feel. If you are struggling with negative thoughts about your body or self-worth, reach out to a trusted friend, a family member or a mental health professional. So there is help available and you don't have to navigate these feelings all by yourself. Now if you have some reservations in reaching out to your mom or you know in reaching out to your parents to discuss this, you can just ask them can we just go meet with a therapist. So we just give a common safe platform for the entire family to talk about these things. So it is important for this especially for this age where children grow up with social media because it is a you know as Dr. Duffy says it is a phone based childhood and you know he talks about the four foundational harms especially for these children who grow up in the phone based childhood. He talks about social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction. So it is really important that we extend our support you know threefold or I would say multi-fold to this generation which has grown up with the phone or with the social media. So remember guys you are more than just your appearance celebrate who you are inside and out. Let's make social media a space where we uplift each other and ourselves. Dr. Duffy's insights remind us of the power of connection and self acceptance. So for more tips on maintaining a positive self-image visit my website www.omfamilytherapy.com. So I am super excited to meet you in my next episode which is going to be on managing screen time to avoid social media fatigue. I'm all excited to share more information and tips about that. So thanks for watching and stay positive and always remember your worth guys. I look forward to hearing your feedback. You can just reach out to me if you after listening to this episode don't want to reach out to me through social media slides that's fine but you can still email me and I very much look forward to your feedback about this episode. You can reach me through email emailstradika@omfamilytherapy.com. Thank you. the next episode.
