The Social Media Trap

Social media creates a meta awareness that everything you do is social currency. While this may not inherently be a bad thing, it can lead you away from the core principles behind why you started running in the first place. This meta awareness can have you walking around with a mirrored image of yourself, seeing yourself as if others are watching you or the image of you that you've curated through an app. You can see this on platforms like Strava. Public comments on a workout might describe it as an "absolute suffer fest", while the athlete's private notes in Training Peaks tell a completely different story. The entire process is reminiscent of a modern Panopticon or is perhaps better termed a digital Panopticon. If you're not familiar with the Panopticon, the term originates from English philosopher Jeremy Bentham's prison design in the 18th century. In the design, a central guard tower is encircled by individual cells, creating a system of constant surveillance where inmates never know the exact moment they are being watched. The system is designed to influence behaviour.

The Panopticon. That's Instagram and Strava in the middle watching on, while you sit confined to your cell.

Enough philosophy, the constant visibility component of social media is equally matched by the flood of information online. We live in an era where unprecedented amounts of information are instantly accessible. It can be exhausting looking through social media seeing people talking about training methodology, the best workouts, the newest tech, supplements and everything in between. A lot of the content you see is AI slop and is produced by people who often do very little to cultivate and support local running communities. This content is heavily curated and rarely reflects real world situations and experiences. The content also creates an environment where ideas are framed in a binary system of right and wrong. Ideas are framed as "It's not X, it's Y", removing nuance and creating less room for exploration of ideas. This also reinforces a process of dichotomous thinking in other areas outside of running and can set people up for failure if they feel like they are working outside of this framework. One scroll through any comments section online is enough to remind you that neutrality is a rarity and platforms reward this binary system of yes and no.

I cannot take credit for this meme.

Is Capitalism sucking the life out of running? A recent 2025 study ranked Australia 47th globally in digital ad exposure. The study also found that Australians see roughly 650 ads daily yet remember virtually none of them. Spend even the smallest amount of time online and you'll see a big shift towards commodification in the running space. Instagram was once an app where you went to share photos. Currently, the platform now operates closer to an online advertising space. Community run clubs have morphed into brand activations, where the line between attendee and product is very blurry. The ideas of value and success in running are leaning more and more towards data tracking and online validation, than about enjoyment of the activity.

I also cannot take credit for this meme.

How do we simplify things? For recreational athletes, endurance rewards simplicity. Find a process or series of processes that work for you and stick with them. Spend some time noticing your online behaviour and what your algorithms are feeding you. Ask yourself, what's shaping my motivation and my attention? If tracking your training is making running feel like a job, remove those tools and go back to basics. Change up your training locations. Arthur Lydiard spoke of mixing up terrain as a beneficial psychological tool. "Training over country, on forest trails or around golf courses or parks has a psychological value...the pressure is off and you will find yourself responding to the inviting contours of the land, speeding up and down according to the conditions and your reactions to the exercise".

With this in mind, if you're relying on a GPS watch to tell you if you're running the right pace or intensity, you might be missing an opportunity to learn. If you're waking up and waiting to be told how you slept and how you feel through a readiness score, you might be missing an opportunity to learn.

The World's very first Garmin.

TLDR checklist 1. Find your why 2. What are your algorithms feeding you? 3. Remove the noise and try something new