The birth of platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have had a huge impact on many things in today’s society. Many have been positive, like the ability to share good news stories and spread awareness about certain illnesses that come with some stigma, such as depression. Others may see a more negative side to it and believe it has just opened up another alleyway to bullying. Amongst all of this though, one of the biggest industries to thrive on it has been fitness.
Fitness has always been a big industry, but in the past has had to grow through the likes of television, magazines and word of mouth. The rapid expansion of social media has allowed everyone access to this world. I would argue now that the percentage of people who haven’t seen anything fitness related on their feed is drastically low. Even those with no interest in fitness won’t have escaped one of their friends posts about fitness.
Personally, I’m a fan of social media and very much focus on all the positives it can bring to us. I’m a big fan of fitness, and something that can help spread all the benefits of it is seen as a good thing to me. With that said, let's look at some of the positives social media has on fitness.
It can motivate the hell out of you – We all know that It can be tough after a long day at work to get to the gym, especially during the darker seasons. However, all it takes is for you to hop on social media and do a quick search of #fitspo and you suddenly find yourself fired up for the session ahead of you! With new content being uploaded every day, you should never be short of any motivation.
You can learn a lot – Social media is a learning tool. You can quite easily build the body you have always wanted by learning from experts on social media, all from the tips of your fingers.
You can share your journey – Sharing your success stories with others who haven’t started their fitness journey yet is a very powerful thing. You never know who you are inspiring by sharing your story.
You can make a living out of it – Who would have thought that by sharing something you love with the world, you would end up making a living out of it. A lot of people now make a very good income from social media.
Unfortunately, positives are usually accompanied by negatives and, it would be unfair to not acknowledge some of the negatives social media has had on fitness.
It could demotivate you – Its just as easy to get demotivated as it is to get motivated. Instagram only ever really shows the best of everything. This goes for our bodies as well. It can be easy to look at a photo of your favourite fitness model and think you won't ever look like them, so what’s the point in trying.
You can learn a lot – Let me elaborate. You can learn a lot of wrong information. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of experts on social media willing to help. There are also a lot of people who aren’t experts claiming to be. You should be careful who you follow and who you trust, it could waste a lot of your time.
You are open to criticism – Criticism is probably cutting it light. Constructive criticism given in the right way can help you progress in your fitness journey. What you may find people doing more of now is bullying you in the comments. This does seem to happen more to fitness models with a large following rather than accounts with smaller followings, but this doesn’t make it right.
You can become obsessed – I would be lying if I said I haven’t ever looked at the amount of engagement I have received on a post. I have and I know I won’t be the only one. The important thing is to not become obsessed with what people think of you. You aren’t the number of likes or views your post gets. Someone will always see your post and benefit from it, wherever that is in the world. That’s something that never used to be able to happen before social media.
We can shape how social media affects us, by being more positive than negative. We now live in a place where you can change someone’s day for the better by just by leaving a nice comment on their post. For me, that’s a win.
