Do you know that lagging feeling when you're running on 1% with any form of social interaction requiring the maximum effort possible? Yeah, same. Gen-Z has started to coin this concept as our ‘social battery’, but what does this actually mean?
Think about an actual battery. When a battery is charged, a device works well, tackling tasks efficiently and effectively. Though, when a battery is dead, the device won’t work. You know those times you’ve complained to your colleagues saying, ‘I don’t even have the energy to speak’ or ‘I feel dead’ – you guessed it, your *supposed* social battery was probably plummeting. That’s the idea, anyway.
GLAMOUR spoke to a psychotherapist, Jade Thomas from Private Therapy Clinic and Dr Deborah Lee at Dr Fox Online Pharmacy, on whether social batteries exist, and if so, how to detect when they’re draining and to recharge them.
Are social batteries real? If so, what are they?
Jade explains, “Social battery is a metaphor I frequently use with clients often when discussing their personal capacity for socialising. Essentially a small or short-lasting ‘social battery’ means that a person has less energy for socializing or finds themselves getting easily emotionally burnt out when socialising with others.”
How can we tell if our social battery is draining?
“Everyone will have their own, personalised warning signals or triggers for noticing when their social battery is draining, but some common ones might include: feeling stressed or burnt out, less interest in engaging in conversations, feeling withdrawn, feeling depressed, a desire to go home or feelings of dread before a socialising event,” says Jade.
Dr Lee added to this, saying, “Introverts typically find social gatherings and functions stressful and tiring. They start with a fully charged social battery, but this is quickly depleted. Extroverts are the opposite. They attend a function running on empty, but they find socialising is energising, and as time passes, their social battery becomes fully charged.”
According to Dr Lee, other issues that could drain our social battery are:
Your mental health: If you are suffering from stress, depression, anxiety, autism, social anxiety, or generalised anxiety disorder, this can also easily deplete your social battery
Who you socialise with: Mixing with a few close friends or family is likely to be far less draining for the social battery than for example, a work conference
Do you feel part of the group?: It can also depend on whether you feel part of the group. If you feel ostracised by virtue of race, religion, colour, or sexual identity, this can further deplete your social battery
The type and length of the function: A coffee with friends is far less likely to exhaust your social battery than a full day's attendance at a wedding
What are the mental health consequences of drained social batteries?
“If you constantly let your social battery run out of charge, this can have serious consequences. It can lead to you withdrawing from social activities, having less human contact, and becoming lonely,” says Dr Lee.
“The loss of connectedness with other people, goes hand in hand with a decrease esteem and self-confidence. It's easy for this to slide into a negative mood, stress, increasing anxiety, and depression. The end result can be social burnout – which like a career/employment burnout – can have serious long-term effects”.
Symptoms can include:
- Feeling tired all the time
- Headaches
- Back pain
- Irritability
- Insomnia
- Feeling frustrated and upset – though they may not know why, and may be critical of others
How can we recharge our social batteries?
Jade notes, “It depends on how self-aware you are of your draining triggers. However, some ways you can ensure you regularly recharge your social battery might include scheduling in time after social activities to recharge, exercise, allow yourself ‘guilt free’ rest, taking a break from technology and communicating your boundaries and capacity with others.”
Dr Lee agrees that sufferers should proactively schedule some time between social events to give yourself time to re-energise and not to allow yourself to be exhaustively booked up with an endless conveyor belt of social functions.
She continued, “Everyone is different, but it could be a hot bath, a trip to the gym, doing some art, playing a musical instrument, going for a walk, or practising yoga or Tai Chi, for example. Learn some relaxation techniques and breathing exercises which you can do anywhere, any time and can help calm you and bring you into the present moment – for example, diaphragmatic breathing.”
We would never forget to charge our phone batteries, so let’s stop neglecting our own.
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