We live in accelerated times. As a statement this would be tricky to contest. Move fast and break things may, officially, be defunct as a motto of Zuckerberg et al, but the speed at which we are encouraged to move, and the impact that the contracted state of being this fosters has on the body…
…and mind, is certainly not helped, not helped at all, by the pull of, the lure toward, our social media feeds.
Unless you happen to be one of the very few who do not engage with social media, what these platforms do to our brains is important to be aware of. It is important in understanding why we feel how we feel, behave how we behave, and in understanding why things like yoga and breathwork help more than ever right now. *
I spoke recently, in class, about how we’re encouraged to be extremely angry, oppressed and offended. Making us angry, oppressed and offended is the best way they have found to trigger us. The more that we’re triggered, the more anxious we are. The more anxious we are, the more likely we are to check our phones, scroll social media, read the news. They know this, they weaponsise it. Here, we turn ourselves into data.
Everything is currency. Transactional. You might not be aware, but that is what’s going on. This continual invitation to be upset and to keep checking has been piled on top of the suffering that already existed, for those with a tall dark history, or for those going through challenging times.
One such challenging time, for very many, is pregnancy.
Being Pregnant and Postnatal on Instagram
In 2022, the social media penetration rate in the United Kingdom is 90% and, whilst Facebook remains the most popular social network in the UK, amongst Instagram’s population, over a third of all users are aged 25-34 and 68% of Instagrammers are female. This is important to what I would like to talk about next which is social media usage in relation to pregnancy and the postnatal period.
Some research , reported on widely in the UK media this week, suggests that unrealistic photos of post-baby bodies on social media may be adding additional stress to those living through the postnatal period.
Around 1,000 images are uploaded to Instagram every day using hashtag #postpartumbody. In analysing this hashtag’s feed, researchers found over half of the images showed abdomens with “visible” or “high” muscle definition.
This is not what a postnatal body looks like. Not only is a newly postnatal six-pack unrealistic but, as those who have any awareness of the physicality of the postnatal body will know, can be a harmful image to portray.
As an example of the potential harm, people should not be, and not be encouraged to be, doing core work in the months following birth, as it risks causing long term damage to already separated stomach muscles.
To infiltrate the feeds of the newly postnatal with endless images of flat, defined, stomachs, by using a postnatal hashtag to gain traction with the sale of fitness plans and diets, is cruel at best.
Why Radically Inclusive Pregnancy Yoga is offer of a path out of this…
This research is no surprise to me, and likely not to you either. It is a topic upon which I have reflected much. It was, for this reason, interesting to consider things such as the artwork, the imagery, to use when letting people know about the Kundalini Global Radically Inclusive Pregnancy Yoga Teacher Training that launched this year and that runs again from March.
On Instagram, the pregnancy yoga landscape reflects that of yoga more generally. If you are someone who moves in the field you will know…
The platform’s algorithms currently favour short, sparkly, noisy, video-based content in the form of Reels, the top posts for #pregnancyyoga are around 70% imagery of slim bodies with visible bumps, several bikinis, the illusion that most pregnancy yoga takes place on an idyllic beach. It is hardly inspiring and it is entirely exclusive.
Changing the landscape of pregnancy on Instagram…
It is also extremely gendered. It is extremely smiley and positive. It is robust in its position as an opportunity for respite, connection, and tranquillity. It is, it would appear, a lovely, middle-class, thing one can do on the, seemingly quite serene, ‘journey’ – a word used abundantly in the messages sent out – into motherhood. As a woman. A she. A ‘mama.’
The landscape is extremely white, not only in that one could assume, from any time spent exploring #pregnancyyoga, that it takes place solely within airy white rooms with pale laminate floors and large attractive houseplants, but also in the ethnicity of its slim, stretch-mark free participants.
This is no reflection of the reality for the majority of us, and the impact this has on the mental wellbeing of those who are pregnant and post natal should not be ignored.
Looking at the social media landscape as it exists for those who are pregnant is one of the very many reasons behind my training. I aim to foster kind, compassionate, human, pregnancy yoga teachers who reflect, who think, about this stuff. About the images they put out, the messages they send, and who strive to include everybody whilst holding a big picture of what those who are pregnant face.
Read more…
*If new to you as a topic, the broader impact of social media on how we think and feel is worth reading up on, if you have the capacity in what remains of our concentration spans!
Many books and studies exist that explore social media use relative to our attentional capacities, memory and social cognition.
An interesting place to start is to read this study, which is pleasantly ‘grey’ in its analysis in that it’s not all, not universally, bad news… there is even some hope, amongst the uncertain long term negatives, in the concept of older adults experiencing cognitive decline, for whom the online environment may provide a new source of positive cognitive stimulation:
That study can act as a springboard to many others and books you may find interesting include:
The truth is, there are hundreds of books, article and studies you could read on the topic… to delve into some of them is an interesting way you could work toward the reclaiming of your mind. The ability to sit still and to read. What could be finer?
