Mix 94.5 breakfast announcer Kymba Cahill walks away from social media after online bullying

A breakfast radio announcer has switched off social media after strangers continuously bullied the presenter online.

Broadcaster Kymba Cahill took several weeks off from Mix 94.5’s breakfast show with Pete Curulli and Ben Cousins after incessant abuse left her feeling like she could not do her job effectively.

“People were getting nasty, and they were personal attacks, it wasn’t about you’ve said this and I’m not okay with it,” she said.

“It was them really going for the jugular about the type of person I am, suggesting I was a fraud or wasn’t supportive or the person I’d made myself out to be.”

Ms Cahill said it deeply affected her because she had shared so much of her life on air.

“For people to suggest that it was some sort of an act, or some sort of lie was just so hurtful,” she said.

Ms Cahill felt compelled to respond to a few people, but it weighed so heavily on her mind she was barley sleeping, tired and exhausted from constantly thinking about it.

Her mind whirled with thoughts about what she had said and questioned if she had done something wrong.

“If you broadcast when you have those thoughts in your head, you almost can’t get a sentence out,” she said.

‘You’re second guessing what you’re going to say, or how someone is going to react, or what word you should use.

“It limits you so drastically you can’t manage, so I took time off to make sure that I came back as the best version of myself.”

Felling like she had to justify herself to strangers was taking up so much of her mental space, Ms Cahill said she wasn’t present in other parts of her life.

“It becomes foreboding, it feels like it’s chasing you around and I don’t think that’s healthy,” she said.

“I would replay conversations in my mind or think, ‘I wish I had come up with this.

“Even when it’s done our brains sometimes keep this loop and I did not want this feeling in my life.”

Ms Cahill decided to turn off social media to remove the external noise she could not control, and while it has made things easier in her life she does miss the positive interactions she had with people on social media.

“I have missed the occasional friend who said, ‘you missed my daughter’s first birthday,’ because I wasn’t online to get the invite,” she said.

“But ultimately, shutting everything else down has been really positive.

“It’s a lot easier, it is better for your mental health, and it’s better for your wellbeing.

“While social media might have started out with the best of intentions it has shifted to a place where we all need to be confident and courageous to say, I’m stepping away from this and whatever that looks like is fine.

“Sometimes you need to call friends or you need to stay in touch with people in a different way, and that’s okay.”

Beyond Blue chief executive officer said Georgie Harman said social media could be a double-edged sword when it came to mental health.

“On the one hand it offers connection and sense of community, but on the other it can expose people to harm and abuse, and contribute to low self-worth, body image concerns, anxiety, and depression,” she said.

“Social media use is not a black and white issue. The relationship we each have with it is complicated.

“It’s how we use it and what we’re exposed to that matters. But what is black and white is that the social media companies have to be held to account for the unsafe design elements of their products.”

Ms Harman said social media companies needed to step up to ensure moderation protocols reduced people’s exposure to harmful messages and content.

“The evidence around the benefits of a digital detox is mixed but we know for many people, taking a break, even for a short time, can be calming,” she said.

“It gives your mind space to rest, reduces the pressure to constantly engage, consume or compare, and helps you reconnect with other parts of your life that are also important to you.

“The thing is that the tech companies don’t make it easy for us to do this. They really need to step up and focus making the social media platforms safer, better for us and less likely to cause harm.”

Ms Harman said online bullying could be relentless and deeply harmful, especially when it came from anonymous sources.

“Receiving these kinds of harmful messages makes people feel unsafe, isolated and disconnected. It’s dehumanising in many cases, it affects self-worth, it’s distressing and over time it can really erode someone’s mental health,” she said.

“We all need to be kinder and more respectful of each other online.”

Australian Psychological Society president Sara Quinn said social media could be a breeding ground for cyber-bullying that can have severe consequences on mental health, especially for younger users.

Dr Quinn said cyber-bullying on social media was complex because it brought those problems into the bedroom, and meant victims were unable to escape from the bullying.

“It’s a real challenge because often social media keeps people connected, but and at the same time we know it can be quite harmful for the individual,” she said.

Dr Quinn said people should consider turning off their notifications and deliberately choose what content to view and what content not to view for relief from too much exposure.

“It can be really difficult, because it gives us so much joy to be attached to those and to have contact, and that fear of missing out is a real thing,” she said.

“Strengthening offline relationships and focusing on face-to-face interactions can actually provide a nice reality check against those little curated versions online.

“We know that that actually reduces some of that feeling of inadequacy and promotes that sense of belonging, acceptance that people are really fighting for.

“You might have to make those bids for connection outside of that, rather than on social media.

“It also mean you have the opportunity to have really good, meaningful conversations because you haven’t seen what’s happened in their life on social media, you can actually hear it from them personally.”