You are NOT your SOCIAL MEDIA!

On the marketing/business side the answer is yes! You have to share who you truly are and what you do in your business to lift others up, but from a spiritual perspective, you are absolutely not. You are more than everything you can share on social media. You are not your body that fits in “the social norms”, you are not the amount of your followers, you are not complete if you have a partner, you are not the happiest person if you live in a big house, and you are absolutely NOT your job title.

Before I get into more about how social media affects our soul and mental health, I want to address that I work with entrepreneurs in their marketing strategies where we build digital marketing strategies and use social media for their business growth. What we do at Joyy! Marketing is completely different than any other agency that you could ever work with. We focus on YOU and YOUR audience regarding human feelings. We go deeper in your soul to really find the best way for you to engage with your audience to help them. If you are interested in learning how we do soul-based digital marketing, you can email me here. But let’s go back to our topic!

Unfortunately, we are living in a world where we “have to” share our lives; our success, our happiness, our love, even our food!

How did all happen that we started feeling forced to share EVERYTHING?!

Our conscious mind is in competition with other social media peeps (a.k.a. humans) without being aware of it! We continuously scroll, feel forced to share something… If we are not in the game of sharing, we feel less, we feel separated from others…

I don’t know what your emotions and experiences are around all of these social media platforms but I’ll share mine and a few experiences of the people in my network.

First, let’s admit the fact that we are addicted to social media! We all are!

“As of 2019, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 144 minutes per day.” You can read more about the statistics from here. But basically, if you are checking your social media once a day (yes even once a day and I know it is not only once!), you are in the club, you are addicted.

Wouldn’t it be a good thing?! If you use social media purposely for the good of yourself and of others, then the answer could be. But what I know is, every addiction is an addiction and it is NOT healthy.

Let’s talk about what I mean by saying “you are not your social media.”

FACT: You are MORE than everything that you are able to share on your social media.

Don’t feel ashamed if you haven’t written a book or you don’t have many followers on your Instagram. Don’t feel bad if you are single and all of your followers or people you follow have a partner… This list can go forever. So, JUST DON’T COMPARE yourself with others and DON’T think about your social media as the source of your JOY! Social Media SHOULD not be your priority to feel GOOD…

What about our SOUL? How does our soul feel when we are on social media too often?

Numb, depressed, stressed, upset…

Why? Because there are judgments (internal & external), competition, and comparison.

Let’s be honest here, when you look at your social media or others’, you have some sort of comparison, a little bit of judgment (can be a good one or bad). But you do have some thoughts about your profile and others. There is no way that the human mind can see something and not feel anything or not have any thoughts around it. So…

“While it may appear harmless, the content that is posted online each day runs much deeper in the minds and emotions of its users.

Soul Analyse’s study reveals that one in five (20%) UK adults feel anxious and depressed because of social media.

Ultimately social media is not real life but the issues experienced as a result of it are very much real.”

Here is another study by Harvard University about how social media affects the brain:

“Self-disclosure on social networking sites lights up the same part of the brain that also ignites when taking an addictive substance.

This is observable in social media usage; when an individual gets a notification, such as a like or mention, the brain receives a rush of dopamine and sends it along reward pathways, causing him or her to feel pleasure. Social media provides an endless amount of immediate rewards in the form of attention from others for relatively minimal effort. Therefore, the brain rewires itself through this positive reinforcement, making people desire likes, retweets, and emoticon reactions.”

You can find more articles around it but let’s focus on YOU and how you are doing with social media.

I have created a check-list below for you to look at when you’re ready to truly live your life, be your authentic self, and get free from the social norms:

Checklist For You to analyze your social media addiction level:

• How often do you check your social media (any of them; FB, IG, TikTok.. etc.) per day?

1, 2, 5, 10..?

- If the number is more than 2, work on making it less! (it might be challenging but let’s give it a try )

• How do you feel when you don’t get many likes on your post?
  • Do you feel like you failed on that post, especially if it’s related to your business? – Be authentic, if nobody likes that post IT IS COMPLETELY FINE! You are still successful and you will be more.
• Do you tend to delete and change the post? – Leave it! It is you, you liked it and wanted to share it. So let it BE.

• Why do you post on social media?

Don’t answer this question right away, think about it, and think about each time you’re in need to post. Then look below at the answers you might get.

- If the reason is you feel bored or lonely, it is a RED FLAG!

- If the reason is you haven’t posted recently and now you “have to”, another RED FLAG!

- If the reason is your business, then ask yourself do you get to benefit from your posts about your brand’s visibility or do you get new clients? Meaning are you posting on purpose and really turning the posts into your favor, or not?

• Do you check who sees your stories every time you share a story?
  • How do you feel after that and who do you check whether she/he sees your story or not?

• How do you feel when you check other people’s social media posts/accounts?
  • Do you feel upset after? – Comparison
  • Do you feel less or more? Do you feel angry or arrogant? – Ego based behavior, Judgement and Competition

• How do you feel when there is NO internet connection in a place where you are?
  • Do you feel like something is missing in your life?
  • Do you have a need to share where you are, especially if it’s a place you have never been to?

Share with me your answers when you’re done

Ok, this was a lot I want you to know that I do have many of these symptoms and I used to have all of them! So, don’t feel bad if you do have them. We’ll get through this together if you want to.

What to do next?

Feel free to reach out to me if you need to be more present and go back to your soul, and find your true source of joy!

You can book a free guidance call with me here.

Remember to not separate yourself from love when you are on social media. Use it purposely and leave it immediately when you’re done with it.

In my next post, I will write more about where our identity actually is formed? If it is not in social media, what makes up who we are?

Stay tuned

October 23, 2020

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