Fitness and Social Media

The age of social media is here to stay. From first steps and first words to graduations and marriages, just about everything goes onto social media in some form. Beyond sharing life events and keeping in touch with friends far and wide, we have seen a massive increase in the use of social media to disseminate information. In many ways this is a good and exciting thing. This very blog post is an example of a well intentioned individual giving advice on combatting a common problem experienced by their audience. However, due to the sensationalist type of content that tends to perform well on social media sites such as Tik-Tok and Instagram it can be very difficult for consumers to sift through the wealth of information available to find what’s useful, what’s being misrepresented, and what’s being exaggerated. The purpose of this article is to give you a few simple tips to read between the lines of social media posts surrounding health and wellness, and help separate useful tidbits from the chorus of ‘unlock your hips’ and ‘bulletproof your knees’.

The first sign that a piece of information is being misrepresented is oversimplification. With a few notable exceptions such as smoking cigarettes being bad for you, and exercise being good for you, there is very rarely a piece of health advice, a specific stretch, or a specific food or supplement that can be touted as universally helpful or universally harmful. While this kind of content seems relatively harmless, if you are not mobile or strong enough to perform one of these exercises with good form or control there is potential to further injure yourself. Indicators that content is adhering to these principles include giving progressions and regressions of exercises, reviewing the context in which an exercise is useful, and providing some disclaimers for safety or common ways people compensate/break form.

Another way that fitness influencers often farm engagement is by making bold claims that run contrary to ‘common knowledge’. Whenever someone is trying to challenge conventional wisdom, the burden of evidence they need to provide is higher than when they are presenting other ideas that run parallel to how we view the body holistically. Challenging common knowledge is not a bad thing in and of itself, but if you must give context of when and why the “rules” can be broken. Often times the conventional knowledge is conventional for a reason, so think twice about the content you consume that discredits it, and look for content that is thorough and tempered in its approach rather than sensationalist.

A final tip for finding good pieces of content to consume is to listen to what other people have to say about the creator, as well as listening to how the creator talks about others. A creator that is dedicated to providing good information will attract others who want to provide the same. Conversely, while engaging in online arguments can create a lot of engagement and provide entertainment for an influencers audience, it provides little actual educational value. Checking on whether a creator is consistent in their messaging, and how much of their platform is their own ideas versus calling others out can give insight on how much actually important content they have to share. Spending a bit of time checking what other trusted sources of information have to say about an influencer can help construct the lens through which you view the content they create.

​The human body is complex, and it can be tempting to blindly trust the advice of people online who have large followings and seem to be educated and well spoken. However when we talk about health and wellness, misinformation can have effects that range from wasting time to creating more injury. By being critical of the information you consume and being wary of content that is snappy and controversial you will be able to effectively utilize the tool of social media for maximum benefit.