Internet Communication: An Activity that Appeals to Shy and Socially Phobic People?

Abstract

Shyness (or social anxiety) and social phobia can be viewed as two distinct conditions, and this study investigates whether they are related to use of the Internet generally, and for communication purposes. 362 participants from two schools, a college and a university in the Teesside area in England were asked to complete Mattick and Clarke's (1998) Social Phobia (SPS) and Social Interaction Anxiety (SIAS) scales and also answer a questionnaire which asked them about their use of the Internet generally and for communication purposes. The findings from these suggested that social anxiety and social phobia are not highly associated with use of the Internet either in general, or for communication purposes, although minor associations with certain aspects of Internet use are discussed.

An Investigation of Short-Term Longitudinal Associations Between Social Anxiety and Victimization and Perpetration of Traditional Bullying and Cyberbullying

“…In general, adolescent girls report more social anxiety in comparison to boys (La Greca and Lopez 1998). Research has shown that individuals with higher levels of social anxiety find some aspects of the Internet particularly appealing and use the Internet to form new online relationships (Madell and Muncer 2006). This is supported by research demonstrating that individuals are better able to be their ''true selves'' online compared to in face-to-face interactions (Bargh et al 2002).With regard to socializing with known others, research has shown that socially anxious individuals are not necessarily more likely to use the Internet for this purpose (Madell and Muncer 2006).…”

Me, My “Selfie” and I: A Survey of Self-disclosure Motivations on Social Media

“…There has been limited research on the posting of selfies on various forms of social media, with the majority of those previous studies focusing on how the Five Factor Model can be used to relate social media activity to personality type (Sorokowski et al, 2015;Ross et al, 2009;Qui et al, 2015;Gosling et al, 2011;Amichai-Hamburger & Vinitzky, 2010;Lee & Kim, 2014). The Five Factor Model (FFM) refers to the five broad personality dimensions used by social scientists to describe human personality (Costa & McCrae, 1992).…”

“…Extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, openness to experience and conscientiousness comprise the FFM (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Lee and Kim (2014) looked at the relationship between personality traits and selfpresentation on Facebook. They found that extraversion was positively related to selfpresentation on both the user's Facebook wall and their news feed.…”

“…They found that extraversion was positively related to selfpresentation on both the user's Facebook wall and their news feed. Extroverts more frequently uploaded photos and updated their statuses, and had more friends than introverts (Lee & Kim, 2014). Amichai-Hamburger and Vinitzky (2010) found a strong connection between Facebook users' personalities and their Facebook behaviors.…”

Psychosocial correlates of internet use among Italian students

“…Nevertheless, results on the extent to which shyness predicts internet usage are controversial. Chak and Leung (2004) found that the shyer a person was, the greater was the likelihood to be addicted to the internet, while Mandell and Muncer (2006) failed to find a high correlation between shyness and internet use. This discrepancy may be due to the different conceptualizations and measures of shyness.…”