Shyness and Social Networking essay

Shy individuals are always subjected to problems related to friendship establishment. As such the shy individuals are less inclined to their counterpart peers, thus avoid interaction. This is as a result of social anxiety experienced during their day to day socializing (Cheek

& Busch, 1981). Undoubtedly, the anxiety results in social behavior inhibition. Nonetheless, it is paramount for the establishment of a platform to which the shy individuals can develop a good relationship within their peer. As such, these paper seeks to establish the how online communities are linked to the quality of friendship among students at various levels of shyness.

Certainly, shy individuals in most instances hinder good relationship development. As such, in comparison to less shy people, shy people diffident areas of social interaction situation, dating as well as, living among people. On the other hand, when in an interactive context, they tend not to initiate conversation, rarely disagree, ask little or ask no questions (Cheek & Buss, 1981) avoid eye contact (Cheek & Buss, 1981)and speak less.

Weaver advocates that, shy individuals always have a hard time in maintaining relationships and have poor social networks .On the other hand, researchers realized how shy individuals spend less time interacting and in most instances felt less close to their peers. Moreover, he discovered that shy individuals receive less support from their peer, in comparison with the less shy individuals .Tentatively, Jones and Carpenter presented the idea that shy people often received less guidance, felt less assured and that they could not count on their peer counterparts.

In retrospect to levels of shyness, shy individuals vary as such; they do not differ from the less shy individuals in their desire for social contact. As such, the shyness theories present that, although some individuals withdraw because they lack social approach motivation, others withdraw because they feel unable to enter social situations. Cheek and Buss suggest that, shyness and sociability are orthogonal, thus, it does not imply that shyness equate to less social contact. Tentatively, shy individuals are reportedly lonelier (Cheek & Busch, 1981) and less satisfied with regard to the less shy individuals.

Why do shy people behave in avoidance and inhibited ways? As such, researchers employed the self-presentation theory in evaluating the case. In retrospect to the research, they established that, shy people like most individuals have the yearning to make positive impressions. As such, shy individuals doubt their social capabilities in comparison to the less shy individuals. Undoubtedly, they posses poorer social skills and competence. As a result, their inadequacy to socially perfume attracts negative evaluations from their peers. Tentatively, the shy people's negative interpretation of ambiguous interaction, have less interest from the others. Therefore, since shy individuals perceive their inability to succeed socially, as well as, view themselves as social failures, they avoid social situation and feel less close in relationships.

In most cases, social difficulties are mainly limited to face to face interaction. As such, shy people report greater preference of computer-mediated communication in comparison to face to face interaction. Thus scholars assert that shy individuals are inherently experiencing high - quality relationship over this form of communication. Facebook.com and Myspace.com, are an example of CMC that enable shy people attain quality relationship. These social sites provide the user with a platform that enables interaction of various users globally. Thus, presents with opportunity for joining social groups, as well as, organize social gatherings. Thus shy individuals will thus develop peer intimacy as they do not have any other means of social interaction as compared to the less shy individuals. As a result, predictions present that social networking will enhance correlation with friendship quality and associations would be stronger among shy people.

The present survey established that there exist 4 million Facebook users. University students presented an ideal sample as they are familiar with CMC. Secondly, friendships are of paramount importance to the students. Additionally, in comparison to the less shy, shy people report lower quality friendships during college. The current study tested the ideas that Facebook use is linked with augmented quality of friendship for shy individuals.

Despite the fact that the research has established that shy individuals prefer CMC interaction, it might affect the quality of shy individual's friendship. Tentatively, the research revealed that shy individual become more withdrawn and isolated with the continuous use of CMC. On the other hand, the question arises as to how Facebook facilitates satisfaction, support and closeness. Information gained from Facebook enables the shy people to know their peers as the shared information helps them better understand other individuals. Secondly, there exists a likelihood that shy feel closer to peers. Thirdly, shy individual is devoid of social interaction capabilities.

Despite the fact that Facebook use was associated with better satisfaction, importance and support, Facebook does not associate with less loneliness. As such, previous research has presented the possibility that Facebook use is linked with loneliness. On the other hand there exist limitations to the current research. Tentatively, the research should differentiate friendships that are exclusively CMC from those that involve both Face to face and CMC. Conclusively, research should examine variables that may be moderators. Additionally, the most important limitation was the study's cross sectional design. Despite the fact that it provides insights into the matter, it does not present long term benefits of online use by the shy individuals. Contrastingly, other studies present the probability of shyness increase as CMC use increases.

Conclusively, the social network is paramount among most places as it changes people, as well as, initiates' relationships. Thus, it is imperative to comprehend how the online community shapes the present interaction amongst various individuals.