In this powerful episode, Lisa and Gretchen unpack the complex relationship between social media and suicide prevention. From uplifting connections to harmful comparisons, they explore how our digital spaces can either support or sabotage mental health.
🎥 Watch the Video Podcast on YouTube:
A video version of this episode is available here:
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
🎙️ This episode is proudly brought to you by Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions
Struggling with employee burnout, high turnover, or clunky onboarding processes? Feeling overwhelmed by change or unsure how to support your team’s mental health in the workplace? You’re not alone.
Welcome to Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions—your all-in-one partner for building healthier, more resilient organizations.
At Schoser Solutions, we blend decades of expertise in talent strategy, employee wellness, and HR technology to help small and mid-sized businesses thrive.
We specialize in optimizing UKG Recruiting and Onboarding systems—transforming how you attract, hire, and welcome new talent—while offering custom-built mental wellness programs, stress management toolkits, and change readiness assessments.
Whether you're navigating rapid growth or simply want better support for your employees' well-being, we meet you where you are—with practical tools, strategic insight, and a deeply human approach.
Because when your systems run smoothly and your people feel supported, everyone wins.
🌐 Visit https://schosersolutions.com today.
💙 Because your mental well-being matters. 💙
🔍 Episode Summary:
In this insightful episode, Lisa and Gretchen take a raw, honest look at the powerful impact of social media on mental health and suicide prevention. They share personal reflections, hard-earned wisdom, and actionable advice on how to curate your feed, build boundaries, and use your digital world to lift yourself—and others—up.
They discuss how social media can offer connection, comfort, and resources for those struggling, while also being a space of misinformation, comparison culture, cyberbullying, and emotional overwhelm. With stories, strategies, and humor, they help listeners navigate the digital landscape with intention and self-compassion.
✨ Lessons Learned:
- You control your feed—mute, unfollow, block, or snooze anything that doesn’t serve your well-being.
- Not everything online is therapy—real support comes from real connection, not chatbots or AI-based advice.
- Boundaries = self-love—setting digital boundaries is one of the most powerful acts of self-care.
- Comparison is a thief of joy—don’t measure your worth by curated highlight reels.
- Hope is contagious—share content that inspires, uplifts, and supports.
0:00 – Intro & Lisa’s Graphic Tee Era
1:00 – Why Social Media Deserves a Mental Health Conversation
3:00 – Compassion Fatigue & Conscious Posting
5:30 – Online Kindness: The Power & Harm of Words
9:30 – Influencers, Comparison Culture, and Teen Vulnerability
13:20 – Finding Comfort in the Feed
14:00 – Safe Virtual Communities for Survivors
16:30 – UKG Recruiting & Onboarding Tools (Schoser Ad Segment)
18:00 – Curate Your Space With Intention
20:30 – Funny Animal Videos: The Joy in Simple Content
22:00 – Boundaries Online and Offline
24:00 – Digital Detox & No-Phone Zones
26:00 – Where You Get Your News Matters
28:00 – Final Thoughts: Post With Purpose, Set One New Boundary
30:00 – Wrap-Up: You Are Enough 💜
📚 Resources for Mental Health & Support
🔹 The Survivors Podcast Website – https://thesurvivors.net/
🔹 The HelpHUB™ – Mental health resources, tools, and support networks – https://www.thehelphub.co/
🔹 Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions – Mental wellness coaching & support – https://schosersolutions.com/
🔹 Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads – A raw, award-winning mental health podcast – https://goesoninourheads.net/
📲 Follow & Connect With Us
📷 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_survivors_podcast
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-survivors-podcast
🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
🎙️ See You Next Week!
Stay strong, keep going, and remember: You are enough. 💜
#TheSurvivorsPodcast #EndTheStigma #MentalHealthMatters #SuicidePrevention #YouAreNotAlone #BreakTheSilence #GriefSupport #988Lifeline #SurvivorStories #HealingTogether #PodMatch #MentalHealth #SuicideAwareness #Podcast #Community #Hope #Grief #Stigma #MentalIllness #Support #LisaSugarman #GretchenSchoser #SchoserTalentandWellnessSolutions #TheHelpHUB
00:00:01
The Survivors is brought to you by. Our friends at Schoser Talent and Wellness
00:00:04
Solutions. This podcast mentions suicide, mental illness,
00:00:08
grief and loss and may be triggering for some listeners. So
00:00:12
please take care of your mental. Well being by pausing or skipping any
00:00:15
sections that feel uncomfortable to you. And if you or someone you know is
00:00:19
struggling, please call 988 for support.
00:00:24
Hey, how are you? Fine. How are you? I'm great. I didn't
00:00:28
know if you noticed this, but this is my month of the
00:00:32
Music Graphic T shirt. You can't really. You can't see
00:00:36
this at all if you're listening to the audio, but I'm in a Queen T
00:00:39
shirt, and I think last week I was in a Beatles T
00:00:43
shirt, and next week I think I'm going to be in a Fleetwood Mac T
00:00:45
shirt. So I just want it to be acknowledged that this is my graphic
00:00:49
T shirt era.
00:00:53
Excellent. Sounds lovely. You're looking at me like, what
00:00:56
are we talking about? Okay. What we're really talking about
00:01:00
this week on the Survivors is something we actually have not really
00:01:04
touched on at all. And I know. I'm excited to dig into this conversation. We're
00:01:08
talking about the role of social media in suicide
00:01:11
prevention, which I think is a very, very powerful
00:01:15
conversation. And I'm glad that we're having
00:01:18
it, that we're finally having it, because, let's be honest,
00:01:23
social media is a mixed bag. Some
00:01:27
days it's definitely the thing that keeps us connected,
00:01:31
maybe keeps us inspired, keeps us hopeful, all those things. I'm not.
00:01:36
I'm not trashing the goodness that is out there in social
00:01:39
media. Other days, it is a shit
00:01:43
show. Other days it drags us down.
00:01:47
It demoralizes us. It forces us to compare
00:01:50
ourselves and our lives against everybody else
00:01:54
who seems like they're doing it a lot better than we are. So today
00:01:59
I thought it might be a good idea if you and I just
00:02:03
unpacked the role that social media
00:02:07
plays in suicide prevention, because it can really
00:02:11
help and it can really harm.
00:02:15
And what we can
00:02:18
do to make our feeds healthier and safer and more
00:02:22
supportive is up to us. Like, we get to decide
00:02:26
where we focus our attention. You agree? Agree.
00:02:30
And there's. So
00:02:34
there's two sides to the social media thing, too,
00:02:37
is, you know, it's one thing
00:02:41
to post a lot about mental
00:02:45
health and things like that, but, like, when we're posting, we
00:02:48
also need to remember that people
00:02:52
get compassion fatigue. And so, you know,
00:02:56
you have to be very cognizant of
00:03:00
what you are posting. And
00:03:04
you know what if you're going to post something out there just to be mean,
00:03:08
don't post it. It's kind of like going back to what your mom
00:03:12
used to say. You don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at
00:03:15
all. Because people can read into that and they could be having a really
00:03:19
horrible day and all you're doing is making that
00:03:23
day worse for them. I'm really glad that you said
00:03:27
all that because it just brought two things to mind and I want to see
00:03:30
if I can remember both of them because my short term memory's been terrible lately.
00:03:34
So the first thing I think is that
00:03:40
it's very important that we recognize
00:03:44
that there are people out there who feel this false sense of
00:03:47
empowerment behind a screen. I know those people. I
00:03:51
have worked with those people, collaborated with those people, been friends
00:03:55
with those people who are two totally different
00:03:58
kinds of people when they are in person, in front
00:04:02
of your face or maybe on the phone with you,
00:04:07
versus the same person texting you something
00:04:11
or writing an email, which. Who does that anymore? But
00:04:14
post, you know, or someone who posts something,
00:04:18
they're like a Jekyll and Hyde. And I have had a couple of experiences in
00:04:22
my life where I've been close
00:04:25
to someone who I felt like I really knew and
00:04:29
trusted and believed was one type of person. And
00:04:33
then all of a sudden I saw them to be someone
00:04:36
completely different and in some cases passive aggressive and hostile and
00:04:40
unkind. Just unkind. And that can really
00:04:44
do a number on you can be really, really
00:04:48
hard when you're on the receiving end of that.
00:04:52
And it's this, this false sense of empowerment that I think a lot of people
00:04:55
feel. Yeah, it is. And
00:05:00
the way that you post out onto social media,
00:05:04
be cognizant of what you're posting. Are you posting
00:05:08
it to be funny? Are you posting it to be hurtful? Be aware of who
00:05:12
your audience is going to be when you're posting it
00:05:17
because it may just strike a really bad chord
00:05:22
with somebody and that may not have been your intention.
00:05:26
Yeah, it's true. And I think that just speaks to the
00:05:30
fact that people just have to be conscious of
00:05:34
what they're doing and understand that there are actually human beings on the other
00:05:38
side of these screens that we look at or that we hold in our hands.
00:05:41
And I don't think that enough people keep that in mind because
00:05:45
we're doing everything with these inanimate objects that
00:05:49
don't respond back to us. In a lot of cases, we're just putting our
00:05:52
feelings out there. And oftentimes we're doing it
00:05:56
without a filter. So it's this
00:06:00
double edged sword and. It goes back to what we were
00:06:04
talking about a couple weeks ago, like negative self talk.
00:06:07
That's like we say stuff online
00:06:12
that we would never ever, ever, I
00:06:15
mean, ever say to somebody in person.
00:06:19
Yeah, well, that's what I'm talking about. I, I know I would never
00:06:23
expect certain things from certain people in person. And then all of a
00:06:27
sudden I get something from that person over text and I'm like,
00:06:30
who the hell are you? All of a sudden. Yeah, and,
00:06:34
and social media is the same way. So whether you're,
00:06:38
you're posting a meme or a statement or
00:06:41
something, words matter and words can hurt.
00:06:46
And you know, really think long and hard
00:06:50
if that's something that you want to attach your name to.
00:06:55
But also for somebody who used social media to
00:06:59
try and feel better. Yeah, there's a lot of good people you can
00:07:03
follow on Instagram on. Okay,
00:07:06
yes, I went down the TikTok rabbit hole. Didn't do that for a whole long
00:07:10
time. But
00:07:14
find people that you trust and their messages make your heart feel
00:07:18
good. Instead of going out to like
00:07:21
your normal friends and family feed, there are people out there
00:07:25
with really good intentions that
00:07:29
are just trying to help. Yeah, it's true. And
00:07:33
we should be mimicking our
00:07:36
real life in what we do on social
00:07:40
media. Like, I don't connect with
00:07:44
people just for numbers. If I don't have a relationship with you, if I
00:07:48
don't have some kind of
00:07:52
common connection with you or
00:07:56
some reason to be connected with you, I'm not gonna connect with you. I'm not
00:07:59
just looking to boost numbers and
00:08:03
followers and that sort of thing. That's of no interest to me
00:08:07
whatsoever. And if I'm not gonna be
00:08:11
close to you in real life, I'm not gonna be close to you
00:08:15
in an artificial world. And
00:08:19
I think that we have to subscribe to the same school of
00:08:22
thought that Dave and I always used to teach the girls. Find
00:08:26
the people who are going to make you feel good about yourself,
00:08:30
support you, fill you up, bring out the best in you. Well,
00:08:34
when you and I are talking in the context of
00:08:37
social media and how that can help and how that can hurt
00:08:42
when we're seeking people out, we have to
00:08:46
do the same thing with the sites that we spend our time
00:08:50
on and the influencers who we listen to
00:08:54
because they can be really corrupting
00:08:58
and they can be really toxic. I mean, look, it's like I said a minute
00:09:01
ago, social media is definitely A double edged sword. It
00:09:05
can be a lifeline for people who feel isolated. And I think that that
00:09:09
has revolutionized loneliness in a lot of ways. But
00:09:12
it's also given us an isolation and loneliness
00:09:16
epidemic at the same time. Which is weird, but it's true. You know, it
00:09:20
connects people who don't have the means to be connected
00:09:24
to supportive communities and peer groups and
00:09:27
virtual groups and even real time crisis support.
00:09:32
But these same platforms or ones like them
00:09:36
can also expose people to cyberbullying and
00:09:39
misinformation and fraud and there can be
00:09:42
lots of content triggers. So you know, it's a
00:09:46
trick tool, but it's also a risk. It is.
00:09:50
But with some of that risk there is reward. For me,
00:09:54
just my own, my own personal story is
00:09:58
right before everything happened on that Christmas day,
00:10:02
I was trying to find every kind of resource that could just
00:10:06
make me feel a teeny tiny bit better. And like
00:10:10
I did, I found some influencers out there that get did make me
00:10:14
feel better. And I did start to realize that I wasn't alone
00:10:18
in my own like internal battle
00:10:21
of what was going on in my head. But I was still depressed.
00:10:26
And it's not a cure all. That's where therapy
00:10:30
came in. That's where like opening up came like came in.
00:10:34
You can't just depend on that social media aspect
00:10:38
to be your therapist because you still
00:10:42
need to open up your mouth to talk about it. Absolutely.
00:10:46
And I'm glad you mentioned don't trust
00:10:50
it to be a therapist because there is a very, very hot
00:10:53
conversation that's happening right now. There's been a lot going on in the news. I
00:10:57
think it's important that we bring it here to this conversation, even if we
00:11:01
only just touch on it. And that is the
00:11:04
controversy about utilizing AI now
00:11:08
for therapy. Because as we all know, and if you don't
00:11:12
know, you'll know soon enough, AI artificial
00:11:16
intelligence is not always reliable. And there
00:11:19
have been a lot of cases, far too many cases recently in
00:11:23
the news where, and I'm talking more more specifically about
00:11:27
younger people like youth who have
00:11:32
taken their lives because they have
00:11:35
been led on by some artificial
00:11:39
intelligence in ways that
00:11:43
a traditional face to face, in person
00:11:47
therapist would never allow.
00:11:51
And people's lives have been
00:11:55
compromised because they are seeking
00:11:58
out professional mental
00:12:02
health therapy using a chatbot
00:12:07
and someone who doesn't know them, someone who is artificial.
00:12:11
And in some cases it has
00:12:15
created chaos because a lot of kids have done bad things to themselves
00:12:19
or in some cases ended their lives. And so in
00:12:23
that way it's A very, very dangerous
00:12:27
tool. Social media is a very dangerous tool in that way.
00:12:31
And you really have to know what you're saying and what you're doing
00:12:35
to really ensure that you're staying safe.
00:12:39
Definitely. And
00:12:43
while AI is still there, like,
00:12:46
don't depend on that answer. Don't. It's like going to school and
00:12:50
using the Encyclopedia Britannica. Check your
00:12:54
resources, check in with a helpline,
00:12:57
check in with friends. Look to make
00:13:01
sure that that is the answer that you're looking for. I will tell
00:13:05
you, doing the Google search on mental health or
00:13:08
suicide awareness, you get a ton of information that is
00:13:12
not helpful. But do your research
00:13:16
and follow people that make your heart
00:13:19
feel. Feel good, because that's what I did. It made my
00:13:23
heart feel better. Maybe not my head feel better, but it made my heart feel
00:13:27
better knowing that I wasn't going through my own
00:13:31
horrible journey by myself. Yeah,
00:13:34
it's important as a form of connection. It can be an
00:13:38
incredible tool. I moderate, and I've talked about it many times
00:13:42
on the podcast. I moderate a group
00:13:46
for survivors of suicide loss. I facilitate this group through
00:13:49
Samaritans here in Boston called Safe Place. And
00:13:53
it gives people a virtual opportunity to gather
00:13:57
in a group with other people who have experienced a very specific kind
00:14:01
of loss. And I know that there are thousands and thousands
00:14:05
of these types of groups for people who are
00:14:08
survivors of loss, who are dealing with generalized
00:14:12
grief, who have dealt with
00:14:15
attempts on their own life, who are dealing with
00:14:20
depression, anxiety, substance abuse, eating disorders, you
00:14:23
name it. There is really a group for
00:14:27
anyone. And you can find it virtually in so many cases.
00:14:31
And that's, again, that falls in the
00:14:34
wow, social media can be such a powerful tool category.
00:14:39
But then you go to the other side. We haven't even. We haven't even
00:14:42
scratched at the whole comparison culture
00:14:46
idea yet. So let's just scratch that right now.
00:14:49
Scratch that itch. Yep. So there
00:14:53
is this constant. And I'm a parent. I have two daughters who are now
00:14:57
grown adult women living their lives out in the
00:15:00
workforce. But they were right there in the
00:15:04
epicenter of the birth of
00:15:07
TikTok and Instagram and stories and everybody's bat
00:15:11
mitzvah being plastered all over Facebook and social media.
00:15:14
And, oh, how come I didn't get the invitation to that one? And, oh, how
00:15:17
come that one did that better? And how come that one did? They're bigger and
00:15:21
oh, my God, comparison culture. As the mother of two daughters who were living in
00:15:24
that generation, with social media just emerging. Oh, my
00:15:29
God, it was. That was a time. I can
00:15:32
tell you. I almost wish Dave was here for this conversation because he would say
00:15:36
the same thing. Like, that was a brutal time because
00:15:40
there is just this constant inundation and
00:15:44
exposure to incredibly curated. And I want to
00:15:47
focus on the word curated because that's what it is. Curated,
00:15:51
manipulated highlight reel content.
00:15:55
And it is the tiniest little
00:15:59
percentage of what someone's actual real life is like. And
00:16:02
yet everybody thinks it's your whole life. And for somebody
00:16:06
who's struggling with mental illness, like, oh, I don't know, a teen whose brain isn't
00:16:10
developed yet, who's in like middle school, which is the worst time of life,
00:16:13
and they're already struggling, seeing
00:16:17
endless images of perfect lives with all the kids all around you
00:16:21
or in school sitting next to you all day can just
00:16:24
deepen your feelings of inadequacy or shame or despair or
00:16:28
hopelessness or whatever you're feeling. And this is just as true for teens and
00:16:32
adults. What if your business could recruit
00:16:35
smarter, onboard faster and support employee
00:16:39
wellness all at once? Welcome to shows or Talent and
00:16:42
wellness solutions where people first strategy meets real
00:16:46
results. With over 45 years of combined experience
00:16:50
and 16 years specializing in UKG recruiting and onboarding
00:16:53
systems, we help small and mid sized businesses thrive.
00:16:57
From the first application to full integration, we streamline your
00:17:01
hiring process, reduce time to hire and deliver seamless
00:17:05
onboarding experiences. Our proprietary tools like
00:17:09
the Recruiting and Onboarding Health Check and the Employee Mental
00:17:12
Wellness Index turn insight into impact. At
00:17:16
Shozer, we know that businesses are built on people. That's why we integrate
00:17:19
wellness into every solution. Promoting mental health, reducing
00:17:23
burnout, and creating a culture where talent stays and thrives.
00:17:27
Whether you're navigating change, implementing tech, or
00:17:31
engaging your team, we tailor every solution to fit your
00:17:34
goals. Visit schozersolutions.com today.
00:17:38
Let's build a healthier, more productive future one workplace at a
00:17:42
time. It is,
00:17:46
you know, it's like trying to keep
00:17:50
up with the Joneses. Yes. Like don't.
00:17:53
Like, live your own life. Live your own unique,
00:17:57
beautiful life. You don't have to
00:18:01
be a Kim Kardashian. Just be a good person,
00:18:05
making sure that you're taking care of you and
00:18:09
the people around you. But take care of you first. Because you
00:18:13
can't take care of anybody else unless you're taking care of you first.
00:18:18
Well, I think a big part of doing that, especially
00:18:21
in the online culture that we are living in,
00:18:25
where social media is literally everywhere, the one thing in
00:18:29
the world that nobody is leaving behind is their phone and
00:18:33
if you're on your phone, you're on social media, and you're
00:18:37
on the platforms, and you're being inundated
00:18:41
24 hours a day by all the news and all the feeds
00:18:45
and all the influencers. So ways to protect
00:18:48
yourself are remembering. One of the biggest ways is just to
00:18:52
remember that you reserve the right
00:18:56
to curate your own space. You
00:18:59
have more control than you realize. We all have way more control.
00:19:04
Parents have more control over their kids because they can use filters and
00:19:07
controls and things like that. That didn't exist when my kids were young, but they
00:19:10
do now. So you. You can kind of help to
00:19:14
protect your kids. But if we're talking about grown
00:19:17
adults, we can pick and choose what
00:19:21
we spend our time listening to and watching. And I'll tell you, there is
00:19:25
a lot of power in muting or unfollowing or blocking
00:19:29
content that's harmful or that doesn't serve you and just replacing
00:19:32
it with, I know you, and I know how much you love
00:19:36
your little penguins dancing videos and kitty cats and
00:19:41
flying squirrels and raccoons and all those things. Yeah. But they're like, they make you
00:19:44
happy. Like, my family thinks that I'm ridiculous because I'll be sitting
00:19:47
there on the couch with everybody, and I'll take two seconds and I'll watch a
00:19:51
funny video, and I have to have everybody see the funny compilation of cats
00:19:55
sliding all over the floor. But it makes me so unbelievably happy. So I
00:19:58
watch that. And that's a good part of social media because it makes me happy.
00:20:03
Yeah. Like with me, I start my day with
00:20:07
20 minutes of funny videos. Right now, it's raccoon
00:20:10
videos, but it makes me feel better. And it's content.
00:20:14
I look for content that will make me feel better. And I'm all
00:20:18
about blocking, snoozing. If
00:20:22
it doesn't fit me at that point in time in my life, you're going to
00:20:25
get snoozed. And I don't feel bad about it anymore. I used to feel
00:20:29
bad about it, but I don't because now I'm protecting my mental
00:20:33
health, which to me is the most important thing. Oh,
00:20:36
agreed, agreed, agreed. And it's funny in terms
00:20:40
of boundaries. You and I have talked both online and offline a lot
00:20:43
about boundaries and how each of us has
00:20:48
kind of reset our boundaries in different ways. And I know myself
00:20:51
personally. If my therapist were here right now,
00:20:55
she would probably agree, and so would my family. That the most work that I've
00:20:59
done on myself in the past couple of years has to do with creating
00:21:02
and maintaining boundaries for myself. And an extension of that has recently
00:21:06
become what you just talked about, which is to
00:21:10
snooze or unfollow or unfriend people who
00:21:14
I either am no longer close to or maybe
00:21:18
in the world that we live in right now that is so politically divided, I
00:21:22
just don't want to be forced to see and
00:21:26
hear and watch and listen to and read
00:21:30
content that upsets me or doesn't align with my personal
00:21:34
values. Like, look, anybody on any side of the aisle
00:21:38
reserves the right to say what they feel they
00:21:42
need to say and post what they are going to post. But I, on
00:21:46
my side of the aisle, whatever side that may be, reserve the right to not
00:21:50
have to listen to you and not have to
00:21:53
consider what you have to say because I find it to be offensive or hurtful
00:21:57
or whatever the case may be. And so I have done. My kids
00:22:01
are shocked that I've. I've actually
00:22:04
unfollowed a lot of people, and I have never done that before.
00:22:08
And I will not apologize for that. Because
00:22:12
if I'm not a fan of
00:22:16
what you believe in, I am choosing to
00:22:20
react to that in a. In the way of, okay, well, I'm, I'm just,
00:22:24
I. I'm not, I'm not going to be close to you. Like, we don't align
00:22:28
anymore. So I'm not going to be close to you because what you say and
00:22:30
do really hurts me deeply. So you can go ahead and say and do it,
00:22:34
but you're going to do without me. So. And I'm making a reflection of that
00:22:37
now. My virtual life, too. Like,
00:22:41
it's carrying over into my virtual life. And I got to tell you, it's super
00:22:43
liberating. Yeah, it's like the ultimate act of
00:22:47
self love. Yes, it is the ultimate act.
00:22:51
And you know, part of the whole social media
00:22:54
thing too, is get off your phone, go enjoy a little
00:22:58
bit of nature. I am going to tell you, the phone will still be
00:23:02
there. But like, in my case, my days
00:23:06
of being able to go outside and enjoy the weather are
00:23:09
numbered because snow is coming. I know.
00:23:13
Look at your. I love the fact that you're talking about snow. And
00:23:17
it's, you know, it's. It's barely fall and you're
00:23:20
already fixating on it. I am. You want to know why? Because I'm
00:23:24
trying to get as much time outside without
00:23:28
having to put on 17 layers of clothes. Okay. I respect
00:23:31
that and enjoy some fresh air.
00:23:35
No, I agree. And I love that for you and I completely support what
00:23:39
you're saying because look, you can't
00:23:42
argue all of the studies that have been done
00:23:46
that link heavy social media use. And I'm not just talking about
00:23:50
with kids, I'm talking about with humans. It links
00:23:54
social media use, screen time to increased
00:23:58
anxiety, increased depression, heightened
00:24:02
emotional reactions to things, sleeplessness. There
00:24:05
are so many different ways that screen time has an
00:24:09
impact on us. So when we're creating
00:24:12
boundaries, not just within the spaces
00:24:16
that we feel we are in on social
00:24:20
media, but when we're also creating other boundaries, like
00:24:23
limiting our screen time altogether and maybe having like a
00:24:27
no phone zone, I know we did that when our kids were
00:24:30
young and social media was really emerging. We would
00:24:34
say to them, you will not take your phone out
00:24:38
at a restaurant, you will not take your phone out at, at the
00:24:42
dinner table unless it's like an emergency and someone's literally on fire. And we
00:24:45
really stuck to that. But people don't do that as much anymore. People aren't
00:24:49
doing the digital detoxes like they were
00:24:54
a while ago, years ago, because everything got turned upside
00:24:57
down during the pandemic and nobody's come out of it yet. I think in that
00:25:01
way people are still glued to their devices.
00:25:05
I, you know, what I did find though is
00:25:08
after January 20th, I started
00:25:12
putting my phone down more because I don't need to hear the rhetoric.
00:25:16
I, I don't need that in my, my life. And that's
00:25:20
just not only social media, but that's just also new news
00:25:24
sources and, and everything. Yeah, there's some important stuff going on
00:25:27
in the world today, but you don't need to be looking at it
00:25:31
24 7. It's true. It's very true. And
00:25:35
I've also been very, very intentional about where I get my news and more
00:25:38
importantly, how I get my news. I
00:25:42
try now to get my news more one dimensionally and read my
00:25:46
news rather than listening to it because it sets off a whole bunch
00:25:50
of visceral chain reactions. And I feel
00:25:53
all of that when I'm watching certain things or listening to certain things.
00:25:58
And I don't feel it in the same way
00:26:01
when I'm just reading. Like I, for instance,
00:26:05
subscribe to a news outlet called the Skim. Have we
00:26:09
talked about this before? Yeah, you and I have, but not with her
00:26:12
audience. Right, right. So the Skim is a news
00:26:16
outlet that is
00:26:19
absolutely hysterically funny. It's kind of like Jon
00:26:23
Stewart on paper. Like it's funny and it's super, super, super accurate,
00:26:27
but it distills Everything down into
00:26:31
very manageable little bite sized nuggets that
00:26:35
you get to consume and it keeps things somewhat
00:26:39
light that the things that can be kept light. But I find that
00:26:42
I get what I need to get there and I get it in a way
00:26:46
that it is not toxic and it is very accurate and I
00:26:50
move on with my day and my nervous system really appreciates me for
00:26:54
that. Which is you bring up
00:26:57
an interesting topic of like getting where you get your news from.
00:27:02
If you see something posted on, on social media and you
00:27:05
are not completely sure the truthfulness behind that,
00:27:09
do your research. Absolutely. Because
00:27:13
sometimes that, that information can be super,
00:27:17
super hurtful, especially if it's not true
00:27:21
and you don't want people to be coming back to you and saying, hey,
00:27:25
this wasn't really true. Be cognizant of like what
00:27:28
you post, just be, be a little
00:27:32
bit more careful. Yeah, well, I think it's everybody's responsibility to do our
00:27:36
due diligence. We can't just assume that any one outlet
00:27:40
or any one influencer is the end all, be all.
00:27:43
Even if they appear to be the most well
00:27:47
regarded source of information, they
00:27:50
are still only one source of information, regardless of
00:27:55
how important or how
00:27:59
credible they may seem to be. So I agree with
00:28:03
you in every way that people need to do their due diligence and consider
00:28:08
exactly what they're getting from these sources
00:28:11
and at the same time
00:28:15
make sure that you're giving yourself more than one
00:28:19
outlet. I like to try and listen to or watch or read
00:28:23
news from all the outlets. So that's just me.
00:28:27
I've never been more of a news junkie than I am now in these last
00:28:29
several years. And obviously that's, I think,
00:28:33
been the case for a lot of people who never really paid attention to things
00:28:35
like politics. They do now. And so I try to make
00:28:39
sure that I get a representation that's accurate from
00:28:42
everywhere. But at the end of the day it's like you have to do what
00:28:46
feels right. At the end of the day we all get to audit our
00:28:50
own feeds. Like we have a responsibility to ourselves
00:28:53
to audit our own feeds and influencers
00:28:57
and identify, pick and choose
00:29:00
what lifts us up and what brings us
00:29:04
down. We have to be looking at those things equally, I think. And
00:29:08
curate with intention, I think is an
00:29:11
important message to keep in mind.
00:29:15
Yep, this is such a great conversation
00:29:18
and just so timely it was. And I'm not done. I have two more things
00:29:22
I want to say because they're on my brain and it'll. I, I already think
00:29:26
I forgot to say something earlier. I was gonna say two things and I only
00:29:30
said one, so I, I feel like I need to make up for it. I.
00:29:32
I think that in terms of social media and what we were talking about earlier
00:29:37
in terms of posting and, and being a little too free with our opinions
00:29:40
and our comments and, and our feedback, I think that we need to post with
00:29:43
intention, I think share a hopeful
00:29:47
message. Maybe it's a resource, maybe it's a reflection,
00:29:51
but try to put something out into the world that's not only
00:29:55
accurate, but try to put something out into the world that's, that's
00:29:59
got some kind of hopefulness to it, especially in the world that
00:30:03
we're living in now. And the only other thing is
00:30:07
just set one new boundary for yourself
00:30:11
in terms of social media because there are boundaries to be set no matter how
00:30:15
well we interact with social media. So pick a
00:30:19
habit like no phones before bed, which I need to do more
00:30:22
of, or limit your screen time or have an entirely
00:30:27
social media free day or weekend
00:30:31
do that. Because social media can drain the life
00:30:34
out of us. So the difference comes down to how we use it.
00:30:38
And when we're intentional, we can transform our feeds into
00:30:42
lifelines. So that was all I wanted to say. Thank you for letting me say
00:30:45
it. Beautiful. What? Like I said, beautiful conversation.
00:30:49
Glad we had it. I am too. I'm really, I'm really glad too. And I
00:30:52
would love to come back and do it again with you next week. Can we
00:30:54
do that? We can. Oh, my God. This is great. I love you.
00:30:58
Love you. Bye. Bye.
00:31:02
Thanks for joining us on the Survivors. Remember, no matter how tough things
00:31:06
feel, you are enough and the world needs you just the way you are.
00:31:10
You're not alone in this journey. There's a community here and every step forward
00:31:13
counts. We're so grateful you took the time to listen and we hope you'll
00:31:17
take one day at a time. Just know there's always more light ahead.
00:31:22
Thanks for being here, friends. Just remember, help is out there
00:31:25
in. So many different places. So if you or someone you know is struggling,
00:31:29
please call, call 988 and a trained crisis counselor like me will. Be
00:31:33
there to help. You can also find an inclusive and comprehensive directory of
00:31:37
mental health resources, tools. And content at
00:31:40
thehelphub.co. Just remember that help is always
00:31:43
just a call or a click away. We'll catch you next week. In the
00:31:47
meantime, keep surviving.