Social Media: Friend or Foe
This topic has been covered so much but I think it's important to hear it from multiple perspectives. I'm going to focus on Instagram. Is Instagram a great social media app that connects us around the world? Or is it an app that just builds a picture of our fake fantastic lives in order to create FOMO among our friends and family?
A lot of people feel as though Instagram is really impacting the mental health of young adults. From an article in Forbes (see full article here),
As a high school teacher I don't really need an article to tell me this. I have a strict no cell phone policy in my classroom from bell ring to bell ring (I know, I'm horrible) and I have taken away many cell phones. I've had temper tantrums from high school juniors where they storm out of the room, a couple kids straight up refused to give up their cell phone and ended up being escorted from my classroom by the principal, one kid put his i-pod on my desk instead of a phone thinking I wouldn't know the difference and my favorite one...the kid who LITERALLY threw his phone at me from across the room yelling, "fine just take it!" Yeah, their addicted and it's affecting their mental health.
Despite that, I do believe social media has some pretty fantastic features. I can connect with so many people in the running community and very easily from across the country or just keep in contact with people I don't see very often. I can post a picture of my running in Stevens Point and Suzy Favor-Hamilton can stumble across it and give it a "like" (true story!) or I can reach out to Brenda Martinez and thank her for completing research and bringing attention to the lack of women in coaching for her graduate degree. She even responded to that one! Besides professional runners, I can keep an eye on athletes that I coach to make sure they are using social media responsibly and even present a healthy outlook on the sport on my own account. But I can't control who my athletes are following and there is a lot of bad information out there.
With that, as runners, I feel we need to be a little more responsible with our social media posts. We focus SO MUCH on distance, time and pace. Too much. We get in a cycle married to our GPS watches and feel the need to post the most glorious version of our runs instead of actual reality.
I'm as guilty as the rest. I used to post my pace all the time. In fact, I was so worried about it I would stop my GPS watch for everything. Stop light, car crossing the road, turn around, water/gel stop, quick walk break, you get it. We fall into the trap of trying to make ourselves look faster than we are. I've finally realized that's dumb. Unless you fall into the category of running a sub 3 hour marathon your "easy" pace should not always be 8:30/mile...especially in drastic weather conditions. It's very much okay to run a 10 minute mile or take a walk break on an easy long run to grab water without stopping your watch. I run a 3 hour and 24 minute marathon and sometimes my easy pace feels like a 10 minute mile. Sometimes my easy pace feels like an 8:30 mile. But it would be irresponsible of me to say that all of my easy runs are at sub 9 minute pace and only post about that.
My high school girls see this flood of information on social media. They see the runners who post their easy pace as faster than it really is because they stop their watch for every little thing or only post the good runs. They see the health and fitness models who cut weight and calories for shows and have a six pack for like 3 weeks before they go back to their normal body weight. They don't see that "my easy pace is an 8 minute mile" runner who ends up at a major running plateau/injury cycle or the "six pack" model who actually weighs 10 pounds heavier when they're not in show mode. They don't see the other angle of the beautiful woman wearing leggings pulled up over her hips with her butt sticking out to the side in perfect lighting.
I saw one of my athletes had posted a picture of her watch after our long run this morning. She had her total distance visible and then crossed out the total time. I feel that we have let her down in that she feels the need to cover up the total time of a 9 mile run. Most people can't even run 9 miles!
Here's my latest long run from Strava. I actually don't upload or go on there much because I write my workouts down in a planner and quite often I leave my GPS at home. I'm trying my best to have full disclosure:
Yeah, I ran an 11:51 mile during mile 8 and slowed down after that. I stopped and got water and probably ate a gel or something. Now, right now I'm not in an intense training cycle. I'm just getting mileage and time on my feet right now. But even if I was in marathon training mode, I still wouldn't hesitate to share that I had to take it easy for a mile on a long run. I wouldn't hesitate because I realize I'm HUMAN.
Not every run is great and not every run will be a "fast" pace...it really shouldn't be because then you're never getting your rest in (that's a whole other blog). If you post your pace I'm not picking on you, but I do ask that you be honest in your posts because you never know who is looking at them. Let's create an environment where a teenage girl can proudly post that she kicked ass on a 9 mile run in the heat and humidity without worrying about who is judging her pace.
A lot of people feel as though Instagram is really impacting the mental health of young adults. From an article in Forbes (see full article here),
"According to a study conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Young Health Movement (YHM), Instagram is ranked the worst out of all the major social media platforms in terms of detriments to the mental health of young adults." It then continues by adding, "The study determined that social media has been described as more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol. That is why social media use is often linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression and poor sleep."
As a high school teacher I don't really need an article to tell me this. I have a strict no cell phone policy in my classroom from bell ring to bell ring (I know, I'm horrible) and I have taken away many cell phones. I've had temper tantrums from high school juniors where they storm out of the room, a couple kids straight up refused to give up their cell phone and ended up being escorted from my classroom by the principal, one kid put his i-pod on my desk instead of a phone thinking I wouldn't know the difference and my favorite one...the kid who LITERALLY threw his phone at me from across the room yelling, "fine just take it!" Yeah, their addicted and it's affecting their mental health.
Despite that, I do believe social media has some pretty fantastic features. I can connect with so many people in the running community and very easily from across the country or just keep in contact with people I don't see very often. I can post a picture of my running in Stevens Point and Suzy Favor-Hamilton can stumble across it and give it a "like" (true story!) or I can reach out to Brenda Martinez and thank her for completing research and bringing attention to the lack of women in coaching for her graduate degree. She even responded to that one! Besides professional runners, I can keep an eye on athletes that I coach to make sure they are using social media responsibly and even present a healthy outlook on the sport on my own account. But I can't control who my athletes are following and there is a lot of bad information out there.
With that, as runners, I feel we need to be a little more responsible with our social media posts. We focus SO MUCH on distance, time and pace. Too much. We get in a cycle married to our GPS watches and feel the need to post the most glorious version of our runs instead of actual reality.
My high school girls see this flood of information on social media. They see the runners who post their easy pace as faster than it really is because they stop their watch for every little thing or only post the good runs. They see the health and fitness models who cut weight and calories for shows and have a six pack for like 3 weeks before they go back to their normal body weight. They don't see that "my easy pace is an 8 minute mile" runner who ends up at a major running plateau/injury cycle or the "six pack" model who actually weighs 10 pounds heavier when they're not in show mode. They don't see the other angle of the beautiful woman wearing leggings pulled up over her hips with her butt sticking out to the side in perfect lighting.
I saw one of my athletes had posted a picture of her watch after our long run this morning. She had her total distance visible and then crossed out the total time. I feel that we have let her down in that she feels the need to cover up the total time of a 9 mile run. Most people can't even run 9 miles!
Here's my latest long run from Strava. I actually don't upload or go on there much because I write my workouts down in a planner and quite often I leave my GPS at home. I'm trying my best to have full disclosure:
Yeah, I ran an 11:51 mile during mile 8 and slowed down after that. I stopped and got water and probably ate a gel or something. Now, right now I'm not in an intense training cycle. I'm just getting mileage and time on my feet right now. But even if I was in marathon training mode, I still wouldn't hesitate to share that I had to take it easy for a mile on a long run. I wouldn't hesitate because I realize I'm HUMAN.
Not every run is great and not every run will be a "fast" pace...it really shouldn't be because then you're never getting your rest in (that's a whole other blog). If you post your pace I'm not picking on you, but I do ask that you be honest in your posts because you never know who is looking at them. Let's create an environment where a teenage girl can proudly post that she kicked ass on a 9 mile run in the heat and humidity without worrying about who is judging her pace.
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