Recently I had the unthinkable happen: the screen on my phone stopped working rendering it useless. After trying to fix it through numerous means, I had to accept the fact that it was broken. At first it felt pretty weird not having it, but I soon noticed something very interesting.
I was actually happier not having it in my pocket. I started to get more pep in my step, and I noticed a lot more of what was around me. This got me thinking: do phones have an impact on our moods including confidence level?
Phones are undoubtably an important asset these days, and could easily be called an accoutrement to our modern-day style.
However, despite offering myriads of tools and having numerous applications, phones can have a negative impact on you depending on your relationship with them.
While some people are able to limit their phone usage, other people simply cannot. In a 2021 survey, 75.4% of participants said that they were addicted to their phone and 83% said that they feel uneasy leaving their home without their phone. For many, phone usage is taking away from social experiences like dates, and even becoming dangerous with 40% of people admitting they look at they phone while driving (but that's a topic for another time and probably for another blog).
This got me thinking about how cellphone usage might be negatively effecting our levels of confidence. Is there a correlation between how much you use your phone and how much confidence you have?
The answer, I believe, is yes.
Think for a moment about how a confident person generally appears:
The posture is cool and relaxed. The facial expression is calm and assured. The style is usually impeccable. You almost feel drawn to confident people because their energy is so high. We want to be around others who exude a high level of confidence.
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| You can tell this guy has a ton of confidence just by looking at him [Photo Credit: ThisKingdom] |
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Now think, if you will, how someone constantly using their phone looks.
The posture tends to be slouched and passive. The facial expression is usually blank or seems like it's responding to the phone. The style doesn't have the same impact it does on the confident person even if they are dressed-up. When we see someone preoccupied in their phone it's usually a signal to steer clear because we assume they don't want to be bothered.
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| Despite the style, the message this guy conveys isn't quite the same [Photo Credit: Masterfile] |
It seems to me like there's a definite correlation between how confident we seem to others and how often we use our phones. But can using a phone too much make you feel less confident?
Again, the answer is yes. According to this short article, because using a phone too much will negatively alter our body posture, over time:
"[excessively using a phone] might play a role in diminishing your feelings of power and strength (both mental and physical)"
And since how we perceive ourselves is a huge part of how much confidence we have or don't have, the logical conclusion is that using your phone too much can, greatly diminish, even ruin, your confidence.
In addition to how we see ourselves and how others may see us, phone usage may also lead to feelings of isolation, which in turn can greatly impact our confidence [See attached video for further explanation].
The bottom line is this: phones can and probably are doing more damage than good. With more and more people using their phone as a crutch to avoid social contact, they are taking away from our experiences and in turn hurting how we see ourselves.
The good news is that you have the power to not let them happen. The solution is theoretically simple, but much more difficult in practice especially for those who are addicted to their phones.
But the solution is to simply resist the call of your phone (no pun intended, if you're getting a call you probably should pick it up). Understand that you don't actually need the phone to distract you. The phone is meant to be a tool, and a great one it is. But it's not meant to help you get out of social experiences. Resist the urge to do use it to that end and slowly over time you will likely notice an elevation in how you feel.
-Ryan
www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFjEn0q_eN9Y_xa0FEk2Dg
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