‘You can’t pause the internet’: social media creators hit by burnout | Social media

The life of a social media creator can be rich in glamor and status. The well -paid approval agreements, online subscribers and the proximity of the celebrity establishment are all advantages of industry.

But a hidden cost will be familiar to anyone facing the 21st century economy: professional exhaustion. The Guardian spoke to five creators with a combined audience of millions of millions who all have degrees of stress or fatigue at work.

“There is no button deactivated in this work,” explains Melanie Murphy, 35, who has been a social media creator since 2013. “Algorithms never stop. You cannot suspend the internet because you fall sick. If you disappear for two or three months, you completely know that algorithms will bring your supporters to new accounts that are active.”

Murphy, based in Dublin, says that his symptoms of professional exhaustion were a “complete fatigue” and a “nervous sensation of tingling and brain fog”. A dose of covid was then “the straw that broke the back of the camel,” she adds.

There is also a self -awareness that accompanies the difficulties in an emerging industry that some people may not take seriously – or cannot conceive as a hard work, given its association with glamor or the ephemeral nature of the renown of social media.

“It is really difficult to talk about my work on the way I felt bad without people being like” shut up you are so privileged “, admits Murphy.

She is not alone. Five out of ten creators say that they have experienced professional exhaustion accordingly of their careers as a creator of social media, according to a survey of 1,000 creators in the United States and the United Kingdom by Billion Dollar Boy, an advertising agency based in London which works with creators. According to research, almost four out of 10 (37%) have planned to leave their careers due to professional exhaustion.

The World Health Organization defines professional exhaustion as the consequence of “chronic stress in the workplace which has not been successfully managed”, with symptoms such as exhaustion, reduced efficiency to your work and a feeling of mental distance from your work.

Others have spoken by the Guardian Talk of Creative Block and their own lack of commitment with the equipment which, by necessity, must produce regularly.

“There is no HR service, there is no union,” explains Murphy. “If my husband was exhausted, as I did and I could literally not stand on the sofa, he would have someone to call. The only people I could really call were creators.”

Shortly after the birth of her second child in 2023, Murphy knew what she called a “complete distribution of professional exhaustion”.

“My body was, like” I’m done “.”

Ironically, ironically, says Murphy, the YouTube videos were an aid in its recovery. She also looked for therapy and “withdrawn a little” from work, after saving enough money to cover a few months off. Now, after “a lot of brain recycling stuff”, she only publishes two YouTube videos per month – after having run to one or two a week before. She was “very, very active” on Instagram but now only publishes “if I feel inspired to publish”.

Now Murphy and her husband, an airline pilot, “come out” in each other in the gains that “mentally gain a little weight”. Murphy’s company is “a little more” of € 100,000 (£ 86,000) per year. She says that she has greatly reduced unpaid work and that changes in her work-life balance have probably reduced her income by around € 20,000.

Murphy has 800,000 subscribers on YouTube and Instagram – its main sources of income are the sponsorship of the brand – including the personal training company Trainwell and the online therapy Betterhelp – and advertising revenues from Youtube, which shares a substantial reduction in advertising expenditure with creators.

Creators – people who live by creating online content, often via brand sponsorship – lead a professional life that reflects the digital culture in which they are anchored. It is fast, demanding and vulnerable to sudden changes in taste.

Becky Owen, the world marketing director of Billion Dollar Boy, said that the average full -time creator must perform a certain number of tasks to succeed, the planning, filming and editing of content management with brands; And, of course, getting involved with subscribers.

Owen says that the “wheels stand out” for many creators.

“It’s widespread. It’s not just a few, “she said, adding that there can also be an emotional toll because many creators” monetize themselves “and transform their lives into content.

“Beyond obtaining new commercial offers, the biggest challenge that the creators are faced with managing the commercial side of what they are doing. They juggle countless responsibilities, trying to excel them, often before they even have a chance to focus on the content itself. This is where they really need support, ”says Owen.

Allison Chen, 22, a creator based in New York specializing in the content of cooking, cooking and lifestyle and has a combined audience of 1.3 million on YouTube, Tiktok and Instagram, says that the continuation of views and commitment can be made. This can make you feel “whatever the number of views you get, there is always a higher peak to make”.

“Social media creators also have the same problems of comparison and self-esteem as regular social media users,” she says.

Chen says that the removal of social media applications has helped. Her routine is to download Instagram and Tiktok every time she needs to download content – then delete them. “I repeat it every day,” she said.

Hannah Witton, 33, based in London, suffered in the same way. She restructured her professional life to avoid exhausting completely, after being a full-time creator since 2015. Witton took three months of maternity leave after giving birth to her son in 2022. Three months, she said, it is the longest time that she saw a creator take off after having children.

“The shortest time I saw someone take off [for maternity leave] is three days. I would have liked to be able to remove more time, but I knew it was not possible.

On her return, Witton discovered that she was trying to produce the same amount of YouTube and Podcast content – on sex and relational advice – in half of the time, with the additional financial burden of paying a producer to help do its content.

“Something had to suffer. And the thing that suffered was me and the content-and my relationship with the content, ”she adds. “The public is intelligent, and I think they can resume these kinds of things.

This week, YouTube, belonging to Google, called on the British government to take the creators more seriously as a profession, in recognition of the “deep economic and cultural contributions they provide to the creative industries of the United Kingdom”.

Meanwhile, creators are used to disseminating advice to others had to join through difficult times.

“It is possible to get through it and earn a lot of money without spreading too thin, which many creators do,” explains Murphy.