[Heo Yeong-ju Column] Maintaining a Healthy Distance with Social Media

Imagining a life without social media and KakaoTalk
Feeling the burnout from a love for social media that went too far
Obligation-driven work led to burnout
Focusing on yoga practice for recovery and restoring physical health

I have a bold dream: to delete all social media and KakaoTalk and spend a year solely focused on my own life.

For me, who teaches students about social media at university, writes about it, and works as a creator, this dream seems almost impossible to achieve.

I truly loved social media. But as the saying goes, too much of a good thing can be poisonous. After years of filming 30-40 videos a day and uploading 3-4 videos every day, burnout inevitably caught up with me.

In the midst of burnout, I experienced the irony of something I loved becoming something I hated. I still felt like I loved it, wanted to love it, but couldn't, and that feeling was agonizing.

I reflected on my mistakes. First, I shouldn't have pushed myself that hard. When someone asks me about my experience with burnout, I often say, "It feels like I broke my leg." I shouldn't have kept running until I broke my leg. Once your leg is broken, you can no longer run. All you can do is wait for it to heal and focus on recovery. I should have recognized my limits. I regret that.

Secondly, numbers shouldn't have become my primary goal. I always had goals, and they were mostly numerical: getting 1 million subscribers, reaching 1 million views, etc. I would write down my weekly goals and erase them after achieving them. It was like a game, and I analyzed and pondered how to level up, completing quests as I went.

In the process, I lost the pure joy of creating content. Once I reached my target numbers, I lost motivation. I felt a sense of emptiness, wondering why I was doing this and what meaning it held anymore. If my goal had been to "consistently create content that brings joy to people" or if my definition of success as a creator had been "creating the content I love for the rest of my life," I wonder if I would still be creating content with joy today.

Ultimately, I confess that it was my "greed" that led to this "burnout." I am taking responsibility for it and paying the price.

I still love social media very much. I enjoy analyzing memes and trends, and I find joy in teaching students about the grammar of social media. It's ironic. I like it, but I also find it repulsive. There's an English phrase for this feeling: "love-hate relationship."

Looking back, I think I felt the same way during my idol activities. I started singing because I loved it so much, but after years of excessive hardship, singing became a "job," and I started to dislike it. My love for singing returned when I became a creator. Having a healthy distance from singing made me love it again.

Someone once told me, "I don't think you should turn something you truly love into a profession. It will make you hate it. You should keep your true passions as hobbies." At the time, I didn't understand. But now, I somewhat agree. The moment something becomes work, there's a sense of obligation to do it even when you don't want to, and that can lead to disliking it.

However, I still believe that people should do what they genuinely love. While it's possible that it might turn into something they dislike as a profession, I believe they can eventually learn to find a "balance" through trial and error and rediscover their love for it.

The most basic thing I did to overcome burnout was to eat and sleep well. Many people think burnout is a problem of the "mind," but it's actually more of a "physical" issue. It's not a mental reaction that comes when faced with work, but rather a "physical reaction." When I try to work, I experience brain fog, nausea, or other physical symptoms. That's why it's essential to focus on physical recovery alongside mental recovery.

So, I chose yoga, a practice that cultivates both body and mind. A fellow creator who had already experienced and overcome burnout recommended it to me. She shared her experience of overcoming burnout through yoga during a period of severe exhaustion, encouraging me to eat well, sleep well, and exercise. I actually felt my body gradually recovering while practicing yoga.

Besides yoga, I've been working on identifying my limits and setting boundaries. When my body signals that it's tired, I don't push myself and stop. I'm practicing stopping even if I want to do more. At first, I was anxious that I might fall behind. But I now understand that this process is necessary for long-term sustainability, so I stop.

Lately, I've also been focusing on expressing myself with "new content" on "new platforms." I've chosen Threads and Brunch as my new platforms, and my new content is centered around "dating and marriage" stories.

I know what attracts more attention and gets more 'likes,' and I know which platforms are the hottest, but chasing trends like that would only lead to losing myself again. So, I'm focusing on what I truly want to do, rediscovering my passion for content creation.

Reels, Shorts, TikTok, the era of short-form content – I know better than anyone that it's an opportunity. But in the past five years, I haven't been able to conserve my energy for the future, and I've spent it all. I emphasize the importance of being a first-mover, but I realize, too late, that rushing in with all your might isn't always the best approach.

To truly overcome burnout 100%, I think I'd need to do what I mentioned earlier: "delete all social media and KakaoTalk and spend a year solely focused on my own life." But it's too radical for me to do right now, so I'm opting for a slower, gentler recovery.

I dream of overcoming the "love-hate relationship" between me and social media and nurturing a relationship filled with love once again.

※ The author of this article is the writer themselves, andthis is a re-posting of an article from Woman Economy Newspaper.