Social Media Anxiety

Well, I should’ve known it would hit again…the dreaded social media anxiety. I am starting to see a pattern when it comes to my love/hate relationship with social media. It’s an endless loop that goes like this:

1. Oh look, social media is fun! I can catch up with my friends who I don’t see every day! Cute photos of kittens! Look at that awesome living room design! I need that lady’s skirt!
2. I should probably post more often. In fact, why don’t I have an editorial calendar. I have one for my work, why not for my personal? I need to make sure my content is varied and my photos have a color theme.
3. OMG, if I see another photo of an influencer talking about daily struggles with a beautifully lit professional image of them staring at the window of an urban coffee shop, I’m going to puke.
4. I will never be fit enough for Instagram. I might as well give up now.
5. Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. Scroll. Repeat.
6. Ugh, I spend way too much time on my phone. I should really cut back.
7. I apparently cannot cut back. I guess I should just delete the app completely.
8. Wow, this break from social media has been so amazing! It’s been a few weeks, I bet I could login and just start slow.
9. Go back to step 1. Repeat forever.

Now, I still don’t really know what the solution is for this ongoing issue, but I know it’s obviously not going away anytime soon. So I’ve been looking around to see if some of the wise women of the internet have any insight. So far, the best conversations on the topic have been via podcast. The Call Your Girlfriend Podcast did an entire episode on Instagram Anxiety, which is incredible. And the Raise Your Hand Say Yes Podcast did a series of episodes on social media breaks that were really insightful.

I’m still unsure what is next for me when it comes to my social media for this blog and personally, but I feel okay knowing I’m at least being thoughtful about the whole thing. I often wonder what I’d be able to get done if I spent less time worrying about social media, and in the last two weeks, I’ve realized how much more productive I am when when I just log off. So for now, I’m on step 7 and wondering if I will close the loop like always, or take a different path this time around.