Impact of social anxiety on the processing of emotional information in video-mediated interaction

Abstract

Overview: This chapter discusses whether various modes of internet communication affect differently socially anxious individuals as compared to nonanxious. It reviews the literature on the relationship between internet use and social adjustment, mainly, social anxiety and loneliness. Next, it develops the reasons why the mainstream modes of communication on the internet, i.e., chats and emails, are appealing to socially anxious and lonely individuals. It also reviews the literature showing that these individuals are indeed presenting different patterns of communication on the internet as compared to nonanxious individuals. Then, it examines whether the introduction of a video-channel in internet communication constitutes a difficulty for socially anxious people. It concludes by suggesting new directions for research at the applied or clinical levels as well as at the fundamental level. Since the development of emailing more than 30 years ago, communication on the internet has impressively grown, in terms of quantity as well as technology (Pew Internet and American Life, 2002). It now allows various forms of communication: instant messages, chat, email, phonemail, Skype, social networking sites, etc. From a psychological perspective, these different forms of communication have different implications in terms of the type of message conveyed and its emotional impact. In this chapter, we will examine the relationship between social anxiety and internet communication. Our rationale is that these various modes of internet communication might affect differently people who are not at ease in the presence of others.