5 Ways to Practise Mindful Social Media Use

Date originally published: n/a

The Junction : Article

“My whole feed is just swamped with dog videos! Puppies, dogs, and animals, because they make me laugh,” says Quilesha Webber, a mental health peer practitioner. “Pay attention to the emotions you feel when looking at [social media] accounts,” she says. Quilesha, whose day is filled with helping and supporting young people with mental health issues, says her approach to social media reflects a mindful way of dealing with the damaging pressures it places on teenagers. “It can be a really powerful tool or a really negative tool. I think if you use it in the right ways, you become more informed, keep up to date with things and get to connect,” she says. “Social media isn’t a real thing. It’s a place where people post their best selves. It is also very toxic in the sense that people believe or observe others, thinking that it’s just their life.” “It can make you feel pretty crap about your own life. It’s a hard concept to believe sometimes.” Quilesha says it’s important to know that your mental health is being affected by what you look at and read every day. “Because our phone is accessible to us 24/7, we’re not mindful and we can feel disempowered.” 5 ways to practice mindful social media use and to assist recovery 1. Follow verified accounts “There are registered or verified accounts in terms of positive mental health. You have organisations in the mental health field, physical health, spiritual health, where they give you resources,” Quilesha says. “Following verified accounts is helpful but be very critical and aware of the information you are taking in.” 2. Set boundaries Unfollowing accounts that don’t make you feel good is a great way to limit the amount of toxic content you see. “Just because you unfollow someone or block them, doesn’t mean you hate them, it just means their social media presence doesn’t help you or isn’t relevant – communicate this to them. It’s okay to not follow friends.” 3. Examine your emotions “It is important to take a step back and examine ‘how am I feeling today? What do I need?’,” Quilesha says. Taking a break can be helpful. 4. Know your privacy settings Choose who follows you: privacy settings on apps such as Instagram allow you to choose who follows you, and this can be better than “being overwhelmed with random people” seeing your activity. Australia’s eSafety Commissioner revealed that only 68 per cent of people managed their online privacy. 5. Limit social media use According to the 2021 study The digital lives of Aussie teens, also by the eSafety Commissioner, teens spent an average of 14.4 hours a week online, equating to just over two hours daily. Quilesha says that, in her experience, it is helpful to set aside an hour or so a day dedicated to social media rather than being on and off it all day. Having a purpose is practicing mindful social media use.

Quilesha Webber. Picture by Elise Connolly

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Dancing in distress: The hidden toll on young bodies revealed

Date originally published: December 12, 2023

The Burne : Article

Injuries are seriously impacting young dancers, causing a whirlwind of psychological damage at a young age. Elise Harrington reports. Dancers are often told or have convinced themselves that they can perform through the pain of injury. Sometimes in fear of disappointing their teachers, or being forced to abandon their sport, they will ignore the pain until it becomes excruciating. Brianna Thomas has been involved in dance, gymnastics, and calisthenics since she was three, and is one of the many that have experienced an extreme injury but continue to compete. “I haven’t really had a break. I think I am too scared to stop.” She said the first time she experienced a big injury was on stage at 10 after being dropped from a lift. “I dislocated my left hip, and we popped it straight back in once I was backstage.” Thomas was 15 when she had her second major injury, and the one that will impact her for the rest of her life. “I was at my calisthenics stage practice and literally just stretching, and kicked my leg up behind me and suddenly felt a lot of pain. I initially thought I had pulled a muscle so tried to stretch it out. Luckily Gaylene was there, she checked on me and said that not only did my back feel like rock, but I had done something very bad to my hip.” Dr Gaylene Mckay, Thomas’ long-term physiotherapist, along with four other medical professionals, conducted a study into calisthenics injuries in Australia and New Zealand. The study found that out of 543 participants, there was a mean of 4.5 injuries per dancer. The article said that as a constantly competitive and evolving sport, “there is potential for ‘new’ or ‘challenging’ movements to be contributing to injury development.” “My bone caught under the cartilage in my hip and the only way to fix that is surgically,” Thomas said. “Within two months, I was in for Osteochondroplasty surgery on my right hip. “The recovery was harsh and costly, and I had a lot of guilt for a long time. Learning to walk again is extremely strange. The surgeon told me that it would take me two years to feel somewhat normal, which is an excruciatingly long time for a 15-year-old. I will probably never be able to run again.” Thomas said that adults in her life started to comment on her muscle and weight loss during this time. “As a dancer I was always aware of my body, but it was never a problem until I injured my hip. I started the year with a hip injury and ended it with an eating disorder. I felt like a burden, and everything was so out of my control with my body. I felt like I was taking up too much space and time and things developed rapidly from there.” The DDD Centre for Recovery said that one in eight dancers experienced an eating disorder, and the number has expectedly increased since Covid19. “I lost my connection and trust with my body and went down a shame spiral. People don’t consider the amount of food your body needs to recover from an injury like that. It took me much long than it should have for my injury to begin to heal.” A study into the psychological impacts on injuries in athletes found that “injury is often accompanied by depression, tension, anger and low self-esteem, particularly in competitive, seriously injured athletes.” It is very frequent for dancers to experience a range of psychological stress, particularly with changes to their body, and expectations of the sport. Ruby Cosgrave has been dancing since she was 13 but became serious about ballet at 16. “I started doing multiple classes every day,” she recalls. "It ended up being nearly 20 hours a week. So much sport at such a young age can be damaging. There’s only so much your body can handle, especially when it's developing.” She said that she had consistent problems with her knees and feet, very common injuries in ballet, “they completely limit my ability to perform at my best”. “In ballet especially, there is such a high expectation for your body to function very abnormally. The teachers really expect you to have the most flexibility and strength but to also be very small and light and make everything look easy. It really has an impact on how you perceive yourself. You’re constantly being criticised and you’re never really perfect.” Cosgrave said she had to give up her other sports like netball to maintain and focus on ballet recovery, and careful not to further injure her knees or feet. “I am still dancing at a local adult ballet school but only twice a week, with people of all levels. It has been great for my mental health in comparison to competitive dance. I am not in constant competition with myself anymore and it gives me the opportunity to enjoy ballet again.” An article by Science Direct on safety and health at work said that “professional dancers are at risk of losing contracts or roles if they are injured, and therefore, it is common to dance through their occurrence.” The article also revealed that musculoskeletal injuries are not only extremely common but are to be expected by dancers throughout their career. Stavroula Lontos had been dancing since she was two, and heavily competing from 14. “Injuries are always part of dancing. I feel like I’ve pulled every muscle possible at this stage and there was never a time when I was in perfect health with dance – I was always sore or slightly injured.” She had her first major injury at 15, tearing her hip muscle. “I didn’t understand the extent of the injury, and no one could properly diagnose me. I continued to dance and still have hip pain.” The injury that put Lontos out of dance was a torn ligament in her ankle. “The rehab for this injury was intense.” She spent the next 12 weeks learning how to walk and run again. “My recovery was difficult. The hardest part wasn’t the pain but acceptance that I couldn’t dance anymore, and I would never be the dancer I was and wanted to be.” Lontos has found a new perspective during her rehabilitation. “I realised that this recovery and rehab process has taught me so much about myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. I pushed myself to such high limits and defied all odds of me ever getting back on pointe. “Recovery isn’t linear for everyone. I believe the dance industry has a unique way of approaching injuries and pain. I was told if a muscle is sore to just stretch it– which I know now is a horrible method of rehabilitation.” All three dancers continue to participate, compete, or teach, with a large understanding of injuries, and how to effectively prevent, and recover.

"There was never a time when I was in perfect health with dance," says Stavroula Lontos. (Photo: Supplied)

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Creating an inclusive world: The Importance of diversity and visibility on kids’ TV (2022 Ossie Award nominee)

Date originally published: November 15, 2021

“There are lots of moral panics around the innocence of children,” says Dr Joanna McIntyre, a lecturer in media studies at Swinburne University. McIntyre is part of the Swinburne research team working with the Australian Children’s Television Foundation on a four-year research project into Australian children’s television. “In Western culture, children are understood to be asexual and must be kept away from certain things – the framing of childhood is seen as a time of innocence and this in lots of ways can kind of rob children of their agency and their individualism,” she says. “But it is very important for young children to have representations of diverse peoples from when they’re young.” “[Television and media] have such a huge influence on how children understand the world and what they understand about people and lives. Up until recently, there has been a pretty limited scope in the types of people who are represented.” The Australian Children’s Television Cultures (ACTC) project, announced in August, is working to understand how local children’s TV shows have an impact on our lives, in an effort to “help shape the next generation of hit shows and online content”. The study also aims to understand if local content aimed at young audiences reflects the changing face of Australia as values continue to evolve with each generation. Screen Australia’s 2016 report Seeing Ourselves: Reflections of Diversity in Australian TV Drama found that children’s programs and adult comedies tended to show a higher level of diversity than adult drama. With new additions to old shows, such as the increasingly diverse Wiggles cast that was announced in August, and animated shows like Doc McStuffins, which centers on a young Black girl aspiring to be a doctor, children are seeing all kinds of people on their screens more now, than ever before. Catherine Antonio, a mother to boys aged two, six and nine, says she and her kids love Doc McStuffins. “It’s good because there is always a lesson behind it – she takes care of animals and toys like her mum takes care of people as a doctor, and her family life is always shown. I think it’s really inspiring for kids when they start dreaming about what they want to be when they grow up.” Antonio says that when she was younger, TV shows had gender bias, whereas nowadays her kids can watch whatever types of shows they’d like without feeling like they shouldn’t be. “Sometimes I question it because it’s not what I’m used to. My eldest boy likes trucks, and my middle boy likes My Little Pony.” McIntyre says change is “generational”. “Especially when it comes to inclusion and diversity – if we give kids a more inclusive and diverse understanding of the world that will flow on and hopefully when they become adults, the world will be more inclusive.” Danielle Storey, 21, says she didn’t see people with a disability or people of colour on TV when she was a kid. “When I went to school those were the [people] getting picked on because they weren’t seen as ‘normal’, whereas these days kids see all types of people on screen.” Storey says that the current generation of particularly able-bodied, white, cis-gendered children are being shown that individuals with disabilities, people of colour, queer people and other diverse humans are on television because it is perfectly okay to be different – while also validating people who experience life as a minority. “Julia from Sesame Street, who has ASD [autism spectrum disorder], is widely shown and discussed on the show, is encouraging kids not to be scared or apprehensive of kids who are different to them.” Globally, TV shows aimed at children and teens have seen a large increase in particularly queer diversity, with shows like The Owl House, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power and Adventure Time all exploring diverse sexualities and genders through main and side characters. Piper Seaman, 19, says Disney major motion pictures are lagging behind in this area. “Disney is really far behind for a … franchise as big as it is. I think they have been great in showing cultural diversity and exiting the ‘damsel in distress’ trope, but they’re holding back on showing queer relationships,” she says. “Disney has hinted at queer characters, but have never been brave enough to display it openly. They have missed so many opportunities and it’s like they’re walking on eggshells trying to ‘protect children’ from something that is completely normal and valid.” Piper says that as a queer person, it would have been easier if they saw queerness in childhood. “If Snow White had a princess kiss her at the end of the movie, I think I would have accepted myself and come out a lot earlier.” In June 2020, for Pride Month, Nickelodeon included SpongeBob in a tweet spotlighting queer characters and actors. This gained a wide amount of mostly millennial media coverage and sparked conversations with those who grew up watching the series. McIntyre says that in media studies, reading through a queer lens – consciously or unconsciously – can lead to people concluding that certain characters fit certain labels. “Like with SpongeBob and Patrick, and Bert and Ernie, people have always assumed they’re in a queer relationship.” Once media has entered the hands of its audience, interpretation becomes up to the audience entirely and conclusions are drawn, whether it was initially intended or not. McIntyre believes there are “nuances of who is shown” when it comes to queer characters – some types of queer characters are deemed “acceptable” and are portrayed and others are deemed “unacceptable” and are in the shadows. “Just because there are certain types of queer characters, it doesn’t mean the battle is won – there is more work for creators to do,” she says. “There are queer adults and queer kids and children who will discover themselves to be queer and so having those representations from an early age helps to validate the place of queer people in society.” “I don’t think that we are at a perfect point in any way,” McIntyre says. “The fight has been happening for decades. The fact we are not there yet shows how important the fight really is.” Diversity on Sesame Street and The Wiggles Introduced in 2014, Julia was a new addition to Sesame Street. Since her introduction, her ASD diagnosis has been displayed and discussed in a way that teaches children rather than stigmatising it. The show has been known for displaying diverse Muppets and people, including Jason who has Down syndrome, Tarah who uses a wheelchair, Zari who wears a religious headscarf, Alex whose father is in jail, and Susan and Gordon, who adopted their son Miles. The Wiggles, which began as an all-male group in 1991, announced four new diverse additions to the cast in August. Emma Watkins, the first female Wiggle, officially joined in 2012, but announced her departure at the end of this year. Joining the new roster of the highly popular childrens’ TV show are Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, Kelly Hamilton and John Pearce. All four new members are from diverse backgrounds, with Evie Ferris the first Indigenous Wiggle to be a part of the three-decade long group. In January 2021, prior to the announcement, the group released a song for their upcoming 30 year anniversary titled We’re All Fruit Salad to celebrate diversity and unity. Additional reporting by Emily Spindler.

Joanna McIntyre. Picture: Elise Harrington (via Zoom)

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