The True Reality of a Social Battery
This article was written by one of our Young Reporters, a scheme that gives 14 to 18-year-old school students a chance to write for a real newspaper. Find out more at the Young Reporter website.
“My social battery has died.” “I need to recharge my social battery.”
But is this a true battery being referred to or is it simply an excuse to cancel those plans you were dreading?
Researchers and psychologists often recognise a social battery as a metaphor for the ‘amount of mental, emotional, and physical energy a person has available for socialising.’
Although it is not a real battery like in your phone or tablet, it possesses the same qualities in the fact that at some point, often after prolonged periods of socialising, your social battery is bound to run out and will require downtime to rest and recharge.
Social batteries are often linked to introversion compared to extroversion.
For example, extroverts have longer capacity social batteries as they gain energy from socialising, in contrast to introverts, who have a lower capacity social battery as they find socialising more energy consuming, as their brains process social interaction with much higher effort.
There are ways to rapidly recharge your social battery in a matter of minutes:
1) Remove yourself from crowds and the presence of others for just 15 minutes and allow your brain to relax without being watched.
2) Remove outside stimuli by putting on noise cancelling headphones and allowing your eyes to close to eliminate noise and visual distractions that could prevent your mind from relaxing.
3) Tense your shoulders and facial muscle for 5 seconds and then allow them to drop and relax to completely release tension being held through your body.
Psychologists emphasise the distinction between social battery and social anxiety.
Symptoms of a low social battery include simple tiredness, physical fatigue and a need for quite time, often in solitude after interaction. Whereas social anxiety is showcased through fear, intense worry and a fear of judgement by others.
Therefore, although your social battery is not a numerical countdown, it IS recognised by psychologists as a metaphor for cognitive and emotional fatigue, due to prolonged periods of social activity.
