Sides, Self-knowledge and a YouTube Series?
“Thomas: Wait... scary costumes? I don’t think I got the memo on that one.
Roman: I literally don’t know how. We discussed it in your head.”
Sanders Sides
By Thomas Sanders and Joan Stokes
Yes, this is not a book. No, I have not lost my marbles. However, due to an unusually busy month and the resulting CF flares, I was unable to do the reading I had planned for this month’s book review. And it’s a little hard to review a book when I’ve only read one third of it. Still, I did not want to leave you without a post today, and I wanted to let you all know about this YouTube series, so I decided to kill too birds with one stone.
Why this series?
So, I have been seeing “Sanders Sides” memes for over a year, which were amusing, but gave me absolutely no context for the series or what it was about. Then, this week, I was exhausted and I needed something short and light to watch while my brain slowly died. So, I decided, what the heck? I’ll watch “Sanders Sides”.
Best decision of my life.
Or at least this week.
What is this series about?
Thomas Sanders is a YouTuber who started off on Vine. You know, that thing that used to be a thing. On the 19th of October, 2016, Thomas released his first “Sanders Sides” episode. The intention, according to himself in the video, was to help his viewers get to know him better, and he chose to do this by “projecting” different aspects of his personality as characters within the show.
In the nearly three years since then, the show has grown into more of a fun, educational show in which Sanders explores complex issues ranging through dealing with anxiety, the importance of honesty, motivation, intrusive thoughts and a range of other issues. All with the help of the four other main characters: Logan, his logical side; Patton, his morality; Roman, his creativity; and Virgil, his anxiety.
My thoughts on this series
This series is incredibly creative. Not simply in concept, but also in execution. I find myself constantly impressed by the quality of the writing, the excellence of Thomas’s acting (seriously, I forget that there aren’t actually five individual people standing around talking to each other), the ways in which he explores the content (we’ve had a puppet episode, a musical episode, a debate episode, a courtroom episode), and the humour with which he handles some very important topics.
As someone who struggles with mental and physical health, and has studied psychology, I greatly appreciate how informative each episode is, with each side contributing something valuable to the discussion, and Logan whipping out studies and evidence when necessary.
Thanks to Thomas and Joan’s creativity, I think this series makes difficult subject matters accessible to a wide range of age groups, although I would recommend parents view it and make there own decisions. Especially with regards to episodes like “Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts”.
Whilst this show wasn’t exactly the light viewing I had anticipated, I have loved every minute of it, and have already been going around recommending people watch it.
How this series affected me
As I said, I have already been recommending that people watch this show. One friend has already obliged me, and in the few days of watching it, we have already found it helps give us a common language with which to talk about more serious issues. For instance, when one of us is struggling with something, the other can say “what would Logan say?” or “how would Patton react?”. That has been a fun and helpful way of being able to encourage each other.
I have also decided to take the step of personifying different aspects of myself, primarily to help myself work through different challenges and keep things in perspective. That has already been really helpful, and the process of figuring out “who” each of the different aspects I am personifying are has already given me greater insight into who I am and how I work.
Over time, I will probably introduce you to the different characters and examine their roles in my life. Although, that is much more likely to happen in either my self care section or my blog.
Did you know…
Anxiety is our natural fight or flight reaction. Sometimes (like for me) that can be heightened to an unhealthy extreme. That does not, however, mean that anxiety itself is a bad thing. As Logan points out in the two-part episode “Accepting Anxiety”, there is such a thing as a Yerkes-Dodson Curve. This curve basically demonstrates the relationship between performance and anxiety/tension. Basically, there is a level of anxiety or tension that is need for the optimal performance of a task. Both too much and too little anxiety can cause problems. The helpful level of anxiety varies depending on the complexity and familiarity of the task at hand, but a little bit is almost always helpful in ensuring that we perform to the best of our abilities.