JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Social media has become an important context for social interaction among young adults. For individuals with social anxiety, online communication may reduce some of the immediate pressures associated with face-to-face interaction while simultaneously introducing new sources of anxiety. However, how socially anxious young adults experience this paradox and manage anxiety in online social interactions remains insufficiently understood.

Objective:

This study aimed to explore the lived experiences of social media use among socially anxious young adults, focusing on their experiences of online social anxiety, the advantageous and disadvantageous features of social media, and the safety behaviors they use to manage anxiety during online interactions.

Methods:

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 31 college students (between the ages of 18–29) with social anxiety symptoms. These were audio-recorded throughout, and then thematically analyzed in NVivo 12.

Results:

Four overarching domains emerged from the qualitative analysis: online social anxiety, advantageous features of social media, disadvantageous features of social media, and online safety behaviors. Participants’ experiences of online social anxiety encompassed five themes: social mistakes anxiety, evaluation and attention anxiety, response pressure, fear of missing out (FOMO), and privacy concerns. Regarding the perceived advantages of social media, availability, anonymity, diversity, manipulability, and de-cueing could facilitate social interaction for socially anxious individuals. In contrast, asynchronicity, monotony, ambiguity, information overload, and permanence could create or intensify anxiety during online interactions. Participants also reported various safety behaviors to prevent or manage anticipated negative evaluation and anxiety, including risk-averse engagement, compulsive checking, identity hiding, impression management, and exaggerated delayed response.

Conclusions:

Social media represents a paradoxical social environment for socially anxious young adults: its features may facilitate social interaction while also creating new sources of anxiety and opportunities for safety behaviors. These findings suggest that understanding the relationship between social media and social anxiety requires attention not only to the extent of social media use but also to how specific features of digital environments shape individuals’ experiences and safety behaviors.