Social Anxiety and Fear of Being Misunderstood When Communicating Online

Abstract

Social anxiety is characterized by a negative interpretation bias toward social cues, such that neutral/ambiguous social events are interpreted negatively and mildly adverse social events are exaggerated (Chen et al., 2020). We set out to explore the relationship between social anxiety and late adolescents' preferences for the clarity of their online messages. Our findings present a complex picture of how social anxiety might impact the way individuals communicate online. The relationship between social anxiety and the clarity of online messages among late adolescents is intricate. The present study aimed to investigate how individuals in late adolescence (i.e., junior high school students) with varying levels of social anxiety feel and worry about the possibility of their messages being misunderstood by others when communicating online.