What does social media do for our confidence…?

We bring our children up to believe they can have everything.  In schools we now give medals for partcipating, so the shock of hard work and results in the world of work are a surprise. What has eroded confidence before we enter business…?

Many of our children are gaming and constantly interacting with social media.  We know that the addictive dopamine keeps their interest and whilst they compete for results they are rarely shared.   In order to feel good instead of face to face feedback they are counting the number of likes on a post.  Turning to a device instead of a person, means they lack the ability to form deep meaningful relationships.  The approval of their peers to grow self esteem is coming from an electronic perspective and not a human.

In order to believe in ourselves we have to be happy in real life and not on our social media platforms.

Genuine praise and recognition takes time and is not an instant when we are in the work place.  The younger generation have not learnt the ability to wait for anything, everything can be obtained immediately.  You don’t even have to wait for the next episode you can download the whole box set.  Instant gratification rather than waiting for a reward which would give us pleasure and contentment.

Job satisfaction is arduous, you have to work hard and build new relationships, you have to have patience.  We find a lot of the younger generation want to quit straightaway as they have never had to wait before.

To survive in work we need a good self image and lots of feedback to grow our self esteem.  This needs to be authentic and genuine.

Corporates are not helping to create the right environment for this generation.  Companies are still very number orientated and there is very little investment in helping people to build confidence.  We lack good leaders taking time to guide their direct reports.  We need to  develop social skills by role modelling, the little innocuous comments that make all the difference. “How’s your Dad?”  Through these little asides trust is formed.

Social media plays with our confidence across all generations, watching your friends and family having a lovely life on a screen rather than being with them.  We are social beasts, put down the phone and go and have lunch with a colleague.

Please do get in touch with nuggets on developing confidence “Fearless motivation”  bev@nuggetsoflearning.co.uk