Feeling slower on your runs lately? Social media might be to blame according to a new study
Social media is blamed for numerous ills affecting society. A new study has reinforced previous research about its adverse effects on athletic performance.
Athletes don’t just need to focus when they are competing but also when training to improve their performance on game day. New research reinforces a growing body of data that shows it would be best if athletes avoided using social media if they want to up their game.
Citing a recent study published in the European Journal of Sport Science, Sweat Science columnist Alex Hutchinson at Outside explains that scrolling on your smartphone before a training session “doesn’t just mess with that specific workout. Instead, over time, the athletes make smaller gains in performance.”
Research reveals social media’s adverse effects on athletic performance
Getting the most out of your workout depends on having the right state of mind during your training session according to the new research done by Carlos Freitas-Junior of the Federal University of Paraiba in Brazil. Using social media before you begin practicing was shown to increase mental fatigue more than watching a documentary.
Hutchinson takes issue with the results from individual athletes in the study, and thus he feels more research and larger studies need to be done. However, based on previous research, he figures the average effect of the greater mental fatigue caused by social media revealed in this latest study is “probably real.”
He gives the example of a famous Stony Brook University study from 2019 that showed NBA players who tweeted after 11:00 pm the night before a game “tended to score fewer points, grab fewer rebounds, and shoot less accurately the next day.” While the problem may have been caused by sleep deprivation, other studies found direct links between using apps like TikTok and altered sleep patterns in young athletes.
This showed that the apps themselves were the root problem. Some of the ills affecting society today that are blamed on social media, including impacting mental wellbeing and eating disorders, affect athletes just like anyone else and harm their performance.
Social media may get some athletes “in a better headspace
As far as the Freitas-Junior study, Hutchison points out that the pattern on an individual level is “so inconsistent” that he’d “hesitate to use it as a basis for advice to athletes.” He says either this was either a “fluke” or that some athletes may have a healthier relationship with social media. Maybe a little phone time for them before working out “gets them in a better headspace” resulting in better performance.
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