Social Media and Athletes
I recently read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. There is a lot of information out now about the effects of social media on childhood development, mental health, and attention. As someone who personally stepped away from social media over a year ago, I can personally attest to the impact. While I have enjoyed the benefits of no social media, I know this is not the decision for everyone.
Though you may not realize it yet, your performance during training and games are being negatively impacted by your social media use. In particular, I see three ways that social media reduces athletes' ability to perform to their full potential.
Let’s dive into what those are and what you can do to counteract them (aside from dropping social media altogether – though you may decide to consider that route as well).
Impact #1 – Fragmentation of attention
One of the biggest impacts of social media is on your attention. Constantly getting bombarded with notifications means you always have part of your brain locked in on what is going on within your phone. You become hyper-alert, aware of every ding and consistently checking in mentally to what may or may not be going on in social media.
Not only are you constantly bombarded, but your attention also takes a hit from the continuous scroll. Your brain gets used to not having to sustain its focus on anything for very long, because a ton of new information will show up in just a moment. Just like junk food, this is usually an easy option for your brain but it is not very filling or sustaining, so you eat more (or in this case, spend waaaay longer on social media than you meant to).
Solution: Train your attention
Build up your attention muscle by providing your brain with times that have no external inputs. This means no listening to music or podcasts, no watching movies, no sending texts, and no scrolling. Give your brain a chance to find its own source of information in the natural and slower world around you.
Examples:
Walk to class with your phone on “do not disturb” and in your backpack. Notice the world around you.
Sitting in a waiting room without being on your phone
Go for a quiet drive – no music, just the road and your thoughts.
Want to take it even further? Try mindfulness meditation. Start with a 2-3 minutes and build up to 10 minutes or more!
Impact #2 – Becoming too self-aware
Generally speaking, your self-awareness falls into two categories: I-self and me-self. The I-self engages with the world in a personal way – I feel excited, I am throwing, I will use this club. When athletes are performing their best, are in the zone, and are playing freely, they are playing from their I-self.
In contrast, the me-self is how you view yourself in relation to others. When in the me-self, our thoughts are focused on how others perceive us. What do they think about me? Do they see me as successful? Does coach think of me as a clutch player? Athletes in this category of self-awareness often experience anxiety related to outcomes, second-guess their abilities, and get hung up on expectations of others.
Social media feeds only the me-self version, as the entire goal of those platforms is to be perceived in a good light from others. Therefore, you are unable to enjoy the experience because you are already thinking of how others will perceive you within that experience.
Solution: Focus on a simple controllable
Identify a simple controllable that is critical for your athletic performance. Controllables are something you have 100% control over, even if you may not be perfect at them all the time. This could include effort, attitude, or a specific action. By focusing intensely on that controllable, you push your mind back into the I-self and you are doing the one thing that has the greatest impact on your performance in that moment.
Impact #3 – Changes in definition of success
Social media operates with an algorithm that highlights engagement (i.e., time spent on that post or interactions with that post). This absolutely does not take into account what you define as success. For example, you may care most about winning and doing what you can to help your team do that, but what gets acknowledged on social media is that one crazy dunk you had. While big dunks may help your team win, I doubt that is the biggest factor in your team’s overall record.
The more time you spend on social media, the more you attempt to “win” the social media “game.” But are you really wanting to be the biggest social media “athlete” or are you wanting to be the best athlete in real life?
Solution: Create a values-based approach
Rather than letting social media dictate what is important, take some time to identify your top 3 values. What is most important to you? What do you want to be known for? Some values may be: honest, respectful, competitive, hard-working, committed, passionate, coachable, healthy, smart, strong, etc.
After you choose your top three, use them to guide your actions. Is what you are seeing on social media helping you live those values? Is how you are spending your time reflecting that those values are important? Do your posts reflect your values?
Whether you like it or not, you are impacted by social media as an athlete. Use these strategies to help combat the negative effects. If you are interested in taking it to the next level, let’s talk about working together to create custom strategies to help you perform at your best.