The Realities of Filming in Public, Even as a Socially Anxious Gal
From the diary of a chronically online social media manager
If you’ve ever tried to film content in public and immediately felt your entire nervous system activate… it’s safe to say, you’re not alone.
I say this as someone who works in social media and is chronically online for a living, but still gets social anxiety the second a camera is pointed at me. There’s something about propping your phone up in a coffee shop or on a sidewalk that suddenly makes you feel like you’re the main character of everyone else’s day. Your brain starts spiraling. Everyone is staring. They know I’m filming. This is embarrassing.
Meanwhile… no one cares.
I had to learn this the hard way. The first few times I tried filming content in public I would overthink every second of it. I’d set my phone down, stop the recording, adjust the angle, start again, look around to see if anyone noticed, and by that point I felt even more awkward than when I started. The trick I eventually realized is you just have to treat it like ripping off a bandaid. Know the shot you want, set the phone down, hit record, film it, and move on with your life. It’s better to just have fun with it rather than worry about someone walking by who’s going to forget about you in 3 seconds.
Also, we need to remember the era we’re living in. This is the internet where people do fit checks on sidewalks, film GRWMs in public bathrooms, and don’t touch their food until they’ve taken three photos of it. Filming something on your phone is one of the most normal things you can do in public now. Half the people around you are probably filming something too or thinking about it.
The thing about social anxiety is it convinces you that everyone is hyper aware of what you’re doing, when in reality most people are just thinking about themselves. They’re texting, ordering coffee, scrolling TikTok, or trying to figure out where they parked. Your 10-second clip is not the center of their day.
So if you’re someone who wants to create content but the idea of filming in public makes you spiral a little, just know you’re not the only one. Even people who do this professionally still feel awkward sometimes. You kind of just get used to it by doing it anyway. And once you push through it a few times, you realize the scary part was mostly in your head.
In a world of phone-eats-first and fit checks on every corner, filming yourself really isn’t that big of a deal anymore. And honestly, the best content usually happens when you stop worrying about who might be watching and just hit record.
xx
A chronically online social media manager