Am I a social media hypocrite?

His one comment summed up what I’d been grappling with for months.

“If I’m on social media, then I’m a hypocrite.”

It was a lightbulb moment. It also just happened to be in the middle of being interviewed for the Focused podcast, hosted by Mike Schmitz and David Sparks.

A boomerang effect

Mike reached out to me about being a guest on the podcast after taking part in the Immunity to Change session I led at a live event in June.

He shared how during the session, he chose a seemingly simple practice to explore: why he struggles to show up consistently on social media. But he ended up “completely surprised” by what he discovered.

Mike realized his goal to grow his business and be visible on social media was in conflict with his beliefs about the harms of social media. As he explains in the episode, it got him thinking about what it would say about him and who he is if he shows up on these platforms.

Would showing up on social media mean he’s a hypocrite?

As soon as I heard him say it, I felt it too.

Turns out the lesson Mike learned from my session was what I needed to learn about myself.

A dreaded image

As I shared in an earlier article about my dreaded F-word, the dreaded image is a version of yourself you are trying to avoid. Being a hypocrite is a big one for me.

For almost a full year, I’ve found myself off and on with social media. And I’ve been fairly open about facing psychological roadblocks, as I explained in the podcast episodes I’m just not good at this and My creator dilemma.

Looking back, I realize the creator dilemma episode was heading in the right direction, but I didn’t dig deep enough. I explained how my mental health improved spending time away from social media. So I was asking myself how I could share my work in a way that supports my professional goals while also supporting my personal well-being.

But as soon as Mike said, “If I’m on social media, then I’m a hypocrite”, I realized I was carrying around the same assumption.

How can I contribute to a platform I know can cause harm on multiple levels?

Is it true?

Here’s the thing about assumptions. They impact our behaviour, but they aren’t always true.

The whole point of the Immunity to Change process is to uncover the assumptions keeping you stuck so you can investigate whether or not they are true. And that’s what Mike did after the session.

I actually hadn’t heard an update about Mike’s progress until the podcast recording when he shared, “I’m publishing to social media a couple of times a day because I identified that blocker. And I had to wrestle with it, but once I did, I realized oh, it’s not that big a deal”.

The word ‘wrestling’ is key here because it’s about challenging unquestioned beliefs. When you find some cracks in the logic, the hold it has over you starts to loosen. It’s about questioning black-and-white thinking.

Does social media cause harm? Yes.

Does social media have benefits? Also yes.

Both things can be true at the same time.

Challenging my own beliefs about social media

Even before Mike summed it up so succinctly with the term hypocrite, I began challenging my own beliefs about posting on social media.

Not long ago, I was on a call with colleagues who consistently publish on Instagram. I explained my internal dilemma of wanting to get my work out there but feeling uncomfortable using platforms I believe people should use less often. Was I contributing to the problem?

They asked me, “Is you staying off social media helping the people you want to reach who are spending time on there?” For them, publishing on Instagram was meeting people where they are and, hopefully, helping them solve a problem. And they do a good job helping others solve a specific problem.

Which got me reflecting back to the ways I’ve been impacted positively by posts on social media. Like learning about hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD) and finally getting a proper diagnosis after 25 years of chronic injuries that none of my health professionals and specialists had considered.

By challenging my own assumptions, my beliefs are shifting, albeit slowly. But like Mike, I’m realizing that publishing content on social media does not necessarily mean I’m a hypocrite. I can have honest concerns about social media AND show up where people are spending time to connect with those who can benefit from what I’m sharing.

But those shifts only happen when you know which assumptions need to be challenged.

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