Ashley Tisdale Was ‘Having Crazy Anxiety with TikTok’ – And How a Social Media Experiment Changed Everything [Exclusive]
Like many people hooked on social media, High School Musical star Ashley Tisdale knew that doom scrolling wasn’t doing her mental health any favors.
She recently admitted she specifically fell down the TikTok rabbit hole, sharing that the app she once loved for its light content became a serious source of anxiety. Tisdale opened up to Showbiz Cheat Sheet about why TikTok became so problematic.
“I was just having crazy anxiety with TikTok and would open TikTok and have immediate anxiety,” she shared. “I don’t know why I’ve never really had that as much with the other social media apps, but for some reason, the algorithm [drives] scary stuff and health stuff.”
“It used to be a dancing app and now it’s so much more than that. And it really would bring my anxiety up,” she added.
Ashley Tisdale changed her social media habits for mental health reasons
Determined to change her social media habit, she teamed up with UScellular for the “Let’s Find US” campaign, which is a mission that takes on the problem of over-connection and challenges people to disconnect from their devices so they can connect with the people and moments that matter most.
She embarked upon the #PhonesDownFor5 challenge, where she didn’t log onto any social media for five days. Tisdale revealed that this challenge was life-changing for her.
“I honestly was in that place where I needed to detox and was so excited when I heard about this campaign because I’ve been on social media for so long,” she said. “And I really haven’t ever allowed myself to take five days or a week to just kind of go off of it. It just got to a point where for my mental health reasons, I was like, I need to do this. Also, I have a child now and I work from home, and if I’m not at my computer, I have my phone on me. And we don’t really realize how addicted we get to our cell phones and how much we can do on them.”
She now doesn’t share as much on Instagram
Tisdale admitted that disconnecting from social media wasn’t as easy as it sounds. “I just love the idea of putting down my phone and really challenging myself,” she said. “To be honest, the first day was really hard. But it was really liberating and it was so nice. I’m thinking about doing it again because that was such an amazing five days. And I became so much more present and I just feel like I connected with all of my relationships more. I just felt less stress and less anxiety.”
Another reason disconnecting wasn’t easy is because Tisdale’s business Frenshe is driven through e-commerce. “I was definitely interested [in checking social media],” she said. “Especially for work purposes, I wanted to get back on and see what was going on.”
She managed to resist taking a peek, but when Tisdale returned to social media, she found her approach and behavior even changed. “We start to do things for Instagram,” she said.
“I felt like everything that I was doing in those five days were for myself, which was really nice,” she said. “And not having to share it, which was nice. Even now what’s changed about me is that I’ll be at dinner and be doing a video of my daughter and my dad having this cute moment. I immediately used to upload it to Instagram and I just now save it. And I’m like, that’s for me. It’s not for everybody else to see. And it feels so nice to have that.”
Ashley Tisdale is working on a social media balance
Even though the five-day social media detox changed her social media behavior and attitude, Tisdale said it’s still a struggle to maintain a balance.
“I’ve had to create that structure,” she said. “Being home and working from home. Because there were times on TikTok I would be on it and 30 minutes later, I’m like, What am I doing? You know, why am I doing this? So, the balance is always hard.”
Tisdale and UScellular invite everyone to participate in Phones Down For 5 by going to uscellular.com/findus to set a personal goal and share their experience using #PhonesDownFor5. The website will also offer tips to successfully make the most of the Phones Down For 5 challenge.
