How social media is killing your acting career (*and what you can do about it)

Scan and scroll, scroll and scan. How many likes did you get? How many followers?  Processing social media is now a regular part of our daily patterns of behavior. And for actors it’s a valuable tool to get your work out there and connect to other artists and industry professionals. But actors beware: left unchecked, social media can start to chip away at your craft and your career. Here’s how social media can keep you from success…

Jealousy.  Seeing your social media “friend’s” pictures from the audition waiting room or on set along with #SoBlesed and #ActorsLife can make you feel like you’re not enough. There you are looking at Facebook in socks and underwear eating cereal for dinner in your tiny apartment comparing yourself to a well-filtered image of your Facebook friend next to the steady-cam operator. And then that negative voice inside your head starts to pipe up. It compares you to the actors you see on social media. All of a sudden you’re paralyzed with feelings of inadequacy that prevent forward motion as an actor. Worthlessness sets in and you start to believe that you won’t succeed.


The Death of Creativity.  The actual “doing” of social media involves rapid-fire scrolling and scanning, processing images and phrases, stopping only to watch a 2 minute video which, because you lack the patience to sit through a 2 minute video, requires you to fast forward to the moment where the cat finally knocks over the lamp. Then you post something that you think will positively affect people’s opinion of you and, because social media offers a way to actually measure people’s opinion of you by way of “likes” and “follows,” you repeatedly go back to your post searching for that feedback. It’s a never-ending assembly line and each new post, each click, each like that it churns out gives your brain a quick little shot of an addictive chemical. You begin to train your brain to need the next hit. So after an hour on Facebook, you turn to Instagram. When that gets old you go to Twitter, then Snapchat and then back to Facebook. Then you try reading a book. But you can’t. Your brain won’t let you. It needs another click. Talking, eating, even going to the bathroom now require your brain to be occupied with scanning and scrolling.  


The solution? Be mindful. Slow down. Ask yourself, “What am I seeing here and how does it make me feel?” If a person or post creates anxiety, unfollow them or hide it. You have that power. Your feed enters your brain every day. You have to be in command of what you want it to look like. Take a second, think about what you need from your social media, and then weed the social media garden. Get rid of that person that posts all the negative stuff, or that person who makes you feel less-than, etc. And maybe decide to start following a person or group who will challenge the way you think or offer you a different perspective. And beyond that, choose to make some activities sacred, social-media-free. I mean, can we sit on the toilette without a phone? Seriously? Or maybe, “No Device Sunday,” etc. Actors must make the time to practice being present. Without that practice, being present in the audition room is very difficult.


At The BGB Studio we teach the practice of presence. Join us. BGB CLASS LINEUP.

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