Flourish Psychology is a boutique private practice that often works with those in the public eye – celebrities, CEOs, lawyers, politicians, and other high profile clients. It is that work that we do that often makes us one of the leading therapists for influencers – a career that is directly in front of the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Influencers and content creators, for their careers, often live on their phones. But this can be a problem for their mental health.
Beyond Social Media
Many people – including right here at Flourish Psychology – have discussed the mental health challenges that can come from being a social media figure. It can be a very difficult profession. Negative comments, perfectionism, exploitation – content creators often struggle with issues such as anxiety and depression that come from such a public facing career.
We encourage you to view our “influencer therapy” page or blog posts like our phone addiction post if you’d like more information about those topics.
However, some of the issues that people experience when they’re influencers go beyond the comments, judgement, and other social media challenges. Many influencers – and non-influencers – also struggle with what’s known as “Digital Overload.”
Digital overload affects anyone that is on their phone too often. It refers to the constant, massive consumption of digital content that many of us engage in every day.
Our brains are not designed to consume that much media at once, on that many topics, in this type of means. Every day, those that are on their phones or tablets too often – which includes not only social media influencers, but also most adults these days – are consuming massive, massive amounts of media right in front of their eyes, cutting off the outside world in the process.
This is too much for our brains to handle. We aren’t built with the ability to process that much information. It’s important to remember that, while it can feel like this information is easy to consume, our brains find this level of processing to be stressful. As a result, we become more likely to develop:
- Stress
- Anxiety
- Poor Concentration
- Depression, and More
When our brains are overloaded with this much information, it can also lead to fatigue, insomnia, forgetfulness, and more. All of this can also occur subconsciously – meaning, you do not realize it is happening, and may feel “fine” or even relaxed while you’re on your phone. But behind the scenes, your brain is becoming more and more stressed.
Everyone, regardless of profession, benefits from reducing their information consumption and, ultimately, their digital overload.
But influencers are in a rough spot – you work online, which means that you need to be not only on a screen, but specifically on your phone. In addition, the more interaction you have and the more you do online, the more you can create content and build your brand.
Already at higher risk for depression, anxiety, and perfectionism, this added screen time and digital overload runs the risk of continuing to create more and more stress while also making it more difficult to cope with online and offline life.
What Can Be Done?
Unless you plan to give up being a social media celebrity, it will instead become important to have a strategy that you stick to with managing your online life. Examples may include:
- Limit your working hours. Make sure that you’re only on your phone intentionally and be completely offline when you’re not working.
- Limit your unnecessary content. Only follow people that are good for your career and follow friends/family, limiting all other unnecessary interactions and content.
- Fill your “unplugged” time with outdoor activities, exercise, friends (without the content), and other things that reduce stress.
We also encourage you to reach out to Flourish Psychology. We’ll work with you on stress coping, time management, anxiety reduction, and how to log off when you lead a largely digital life. Through therapy, we can help provide support to give you back control and aid in your long term mental health.
If you’re struggling with digital overload, or you have anxiety, stress, phone addiction, or other issues potentially caused by being online too often, reach out to Flourish Psychology, today. If you’re interested in more personalized support, learn more about our exclusive mental health services.