Self-Confidence and Technology

Technology lets you find things out for yourself instead of waiting for someone to tell you. That can make you feel more capable, because self-confidence is how sure you feel about your own ability to do something, and it is part of your mental wellbeing. If you look up a step-by-step guide to solving a Rubik's cube and it works, you can repeat it the next day without checking back. Managing it without help makes the next attempt feel far less daunting.

For that boost to happen, the information must be reliable: accurate, up to date and written by someone who actually knows the subject. A method with one step in the wrong order leaves the cube scrambled, and you end up doubting yourself more than before you started.

When going it alone does not help

Not everyone is comfortable working things out alone. Some people only feel sure of themselves after checking a decision with another person, such as a friend, a relative or a workmate. If the only support available is a screen and there is nobody to ask, they can feel unsure and stuck, and their confidence falls rather than grows. Tuning a guitar by ear with only a tuning app is an example: with no friend or teacher to say it sounds right, every small adjustment feels like a guess.

So technology is only a confidence builder when the information can be trusted and the person is happy to work independently. Take away either of those and the same technology can leave someone feeling less sure of themselves.