So today we're going to talk about mental health in the age of social media.
It's, I think, an amazing conversation to have.
And I have a special guest that's going to be joining me today.
There's a lot of people who struggle.
I would say the majority of people who are on the Internet
are struggling with a sense of self self-worth.
And there is an entire generation of
like young people that are extremely affected.
Growing up in this digital age.
I grew up a public person.
I grew up knowing what it meant.
To feel like I was being watched everywhere.
It was extremely ostracizing.
It's part of the reason why I wouldn't want my daughters to be in the industry
because they'd have to live under a microscope.
This is a term I think that I grew up hearing.
But now we are all anyone with a phone
is to some degree living under this microscope.
And what that implies is that there's a tremendous amount of pressure
to be known to game the system to be
a part of these social media communities.
So the Internet is almost parasitic in nature.
To that end, you know, we've seen movies like The Matrix and stuff like that,
and now it's rebooted, which feels timely because the Internet hasn't gone away.
It's only gotten more webbed into our daily moments.
And I'm not saying our daily lives because it's every moment that you're sort of
thinking about opening up a tiktok or and you know what?
I'm the first to tell you that I struggle very much in my personal life
with being a content creator, wanting to stay on trends.
And that gray area of addiction with okay.
Oh, my gosh. Tiktok feels so good.
You know, I'm a part of a mom of TikTok kind of community or like,
I feel like I'm encouraged by virality when my video goes viral and all
kind of is packed into the experience of the Internet is toxic.
It is very naturally toxic.
The entire purpose of the Internet is so that people can make money off of your
time, off of you staying on the Internet for as much as possible.
My husband and I talk about being one of the last generations to have lived
in a world without the Internet and without social media.
So while we use it and misuse it at times, I think we still remember a time
and have some perspective on what it means to not have that instant access.
Like we would be okay.
But this younger generation is tremendously affected by it, to the point
where I would want to bring a friend in to talk about it, because I'm not
well versed enough in having a child that is at an age that can be so affected.
So today I want to talk to Theresa Pham, who's a friend.
She's a mental health advocate.
She is the creator and founder of Holy Kombucha.
And her why is so amazing that I decided I had to have her on my channel
and do something a little different with my walk and talk.
And so, Theresa, hi.
Thank you so much for being with me today on our walk,
even though you're sitting.
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you so much. I'm honored.
I'm loving getting to talk because I get to drink
and I'm drinking the Holy Kombucha right now, the Texas Pear.
It's very, very good.
I'm so glad you like it.
We love it.
So, Theresa,
I know you were just listening to me, but let's chat about mental health
and maybe your experience and your why for Holy Kombucha.
Yeah, no.
Thank you so much for having me, like I said, and I'd be happy to,
you know, give you some of my perspective on my why as well.
I got into the business of making Kombucha because
it's been known to have really great impacts for your gut health.
But just you know, a little over two years ago, my son had passed away
and he was critically impacted by mental health and depression.
Kids are impacted so much by their mental health, by being on social media.
If you think about it for a second, it's not like we're physically moving
or anything like that
when we're doing all these tiktoks and Instagram, it's all through,
you know, what we receive in our eyes, which is perceived
and processed in our brain.
You can't separate the two.
When I grew up living under a microscope like that feeling of feeling vulnerable
all the time.
And I feel like the kid, the kids are going through that now.
They're having those feelings
because this concept that celebrity is available to everybody
isn't necessarily a good thing because with the ups and the highs
of, you know, oh my gosh, my my tiktok went viral or,
you know, I've reached a certain kind of point in Roblox
in like Roblox, like I've achieved some massive like thing here.
But then it's also the downs.
What do you think about that?
Being an athlete in basketball, right?
Like you’re moving and when you get injured on the field,
when you're playing basketball, everyone sees it like it's explicit
when you're not feeling well when you broke your ankle or something.
But, you know, living your life on social media,
living your life through the screen, that which we see each other.
No one sees those injuries, right?
Because it's all occurring in your brain. Right.
I'm just like you I'm part of the older millennial generation where
I know the world that which there was no Facebook
because I went to college in 2005, and that's when Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
I remember when Facebook was being let out into the universities
and everyone was trying to fight to get like an account.
I just remember that whole thing and not really understanding it,
but knowing that it was like a big deal to be a part of.
You're part of this club, right? You're exclusive.
No, Teresa, you're right.
That's exactly like what Zuckerberg was after.
I mean, he was after the whole exclusivity of the club and not being welcomed in.
He simulated what he was experiencing inside,
like outside and I don't actually know if that's a good thing,
you know what I mean?
Because it's almost like in order for everyone to feel accepted,
nobody has to feel accepted.
It's very strange.
It's exactly that like, you know,
are you part of this club where you really are an influencer
when you really do have a lot of people, you know,
who sees you or are you invisible?
You know, no one follows you, no one likes any of your posts.
Does that mean that you're a nobody?
The whole sense of self-worth is oriented around follows
and likes the number of comments and number of retweets and all that.
So your why with Holy Kombucha is partly
because your son had struggled very much so with depression.
And what do you think happened?
How much do you think social media had a part in that?
He played Roblox or what exactly happened?
First of all, he was in middle school and middle school.
Is that time frame when you know you're trying to identify
who is a part of your click?
Does anybody like me? Does anybody care about me?
You know, why is this world so shallow?
When I was in the moment, you know, I just see my son.
He's just going through the highs and lows of a middle schooler because I remember
being rebellious to my parents and not wanting to go do things
with my parents and wanting to stay home, go to sleep.
I'm tired.
You know, when you have this added layer of the cell phone
that's always in your pocket,
that's always at your beck and call, that's always ringing at your screen.
You know, when someone tweets you or Instagram,
you know, likes and follows you, you get those. Right.
But what happens when you don't
what happens when you don't get it, when you know that
every one of your other friends are getting those Ding, ding, ding.
Those messages that pop up on your phone. It's very it's
very scary because I have two daughters and I'm a creator.
So Brendan and I will have these talks about, hey,
how are we going to raise our kids if we're on our phones all the time?
How can we be hypocrites?
It's going to be very difficult to explain it to them over time.
So I don't know
if you have any tips for that, but we're struggling with that ourselves.
The world that we live in right now,
we're basically in the Matrix, like you were mentioning,
we're all connected through cell phones and computers
but we need to really remember why we have cell phones and why
we have computer. They’re designed so that our lives are supposed to be easier.
We can, you know, send a letter much more quickly through email
and we can talk to each other really quickly through a phone call,
and we can talk to each other now right through Zoom.
And, you know, the thing is that like it's supposed to be a mode of communication,
but not the end all, be all.
And that's what it's sort of became.
I do have hope that we can all as Theresa's
putting it, figure out a way to use it for what it was made for,
use it as a way to actually connect with other people,
kind of reframe it and take control over it, really not use it as much, create
a healthy relationship to social media
and just your digital footprint in general.
And most importantly, advocacy Holy Kombucha, which is a fantastic drink.
I've been drinking the Texas
pear this whole time and it's been really refreshing.
Thank you so much, Theresa, for joining me today.
What do you want to say about Hope Squad and Holy Kombucha?
Hope Squad has been a game changing program that is saving kids
lives in schools because, you know, as we know, kids
don't really talk to adults much. They talk to kids.
So hope squad has been saving kids lives in over so far.
30 states around the United States but you know, it's
only a pocket of school districts.
And my goal is to get them in as many school districts as possible.
Kids know what's going on in their friends lives.
And when they're thinking about suicide, they just don't know what to do
when their friends tell them that, hey, I'm thinking about ending my life,
they just want to be the friend
that helps to save them, but not having the right tools and
and hope squad has been really tremendous I’m really proud of what they're doing.
And we are a huge advocate
for hope squad that it's also even on our product packaging now, such
as this product line
that we just recently, you know, launched just got Hope Squad and my story here
and our why on supporting hope squad. So please check out Holy Kombucha.
I highly endorse them.
They're very tasty quality quality stuff
they're going to end up coming in some big department stores.
So if you see the logo
know that
there's an amazing story behind it and that it's going towards saving lives.
Thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me.
Remember that those likes, they aren't really your value.
What's most important in your life is being human.
And when you're human,
you're going to make mistakes and that's going to be okay.
You don't have to be everybody's everything
and you don't have to be perfect.
It's actually way more interesting.
So everything in moderation