I lost my pals when social media took my life over
I went away with the girls... best thing I’ve done MUIREANN O’CONNELL YESTERDAY
MUIREANN O’connell said she lost her “perspective” and stopped going out with pals after social media took over her life.
The Ireland AM host has revealed she has decided to pull back from posting so much online.
After admitting she “went a little bit mad last year” Muireann said: “We might have the same thing up, myself and the two lads [Tommy Bowe and Alan Hughes] and the comments they get and the comments I get are completely different.
“I get awful upset so I decided that I had to stop because it was grand for a while.
“It came as part of the job and you do it for a while.
“I felt like I was going mad last year. I thought, ‘What is wrong with me?’
“It was a feeling like I had to do stuff and then it was taking over my life and seeing how much time I was spending on the phone.
“I started looking at that… I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing?’”
Muireann, 41, said she noticed she wasn’t seeing friends as much, and recalled: “I went away with the girls last year, it was the best thing I’d done in ages.
“We went to Spain for a few days and I had the best laugh of my life. I just thought I need to have this a little bit more. A little more real time. I went a little bit mad last year.
“I thought, ‘Why am I so caught up in this’ and perspective was weird so I just wanted to spend more time with friends and myself. I read more books.”
Muireann also told how she used to fear she’d lose her job on Ireland AM.
She said: “I think I used to worry about it so much like, ‘Oh my God I’m going to be fired tomorrow, oh my God I’m going to be fired tomorrow’.
But now I’m like, ‘Just enjoy yourself ’. I love my job and I love what I do.
“It’s an honour to get up in the morning and do what I do so I’m just really enjoying it.
“But yeah, security just isn’t there anymore. If you thought, you were really secure… I don’t want to sit back and rest. There is always someone who is looking at that job.
“Ireland AM is such an institution. It’s going many years later and it is still doing what it does and audiences have grown and grown. We’re seeing it every different month. We’re getting different demographics watching it.”
Muireann was speaking at the launch of Virgin Media’s new Streaming TV platform, offering infinite entertainment from one tiny box.
Paul Higgins, VP of Consumer of Virgin Media, said: “We are delighted to finally bring this incredible and exciting new Virgin Media product to our customers.”