Shyness and social media use: A meta-analytic summary of moderating and mediating effects
Introduction
Social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (often referred to as social media) are part of the lives of billions of people worldwide. With the increasing popularity of social media, researchers, along with journalists and the general public, have pondered about the usage of these platforms by individuals who are inhibited in offline communication contexts due to their shyness (e.g., Jack, 2016). Whereas some have argued that shy individuals are particularly attracted to social media activities, others highlight that shy individuals might avoid SNSs, as the concerns to make a bad impression, characteristic of shyness, are present in social media contexts as well. Empirical findings on shyness and SNSs have been mixed, as positive, negative, and no associations between shyness and social media use were observed (e.g., Baker & Oswald, 2010; Petrocchi, Asnaani, Martinez, Nadkarni, & Hofmann, 2015; Sulaiman, Jaafar, & Tamjidyamcholo, 2018). We provide the first meta-analytic summary on the association between shyness and social media use, thereby assuming that this association is moderated by patterns of use and related indicators in the primary studies (cf. Gnambs & Appel, 2018). Moreover, a meta-analytical mediation analysis based on the association between shyness and online network size was conducted to illuminate the link between shyness and well-being in the digital societies of the 21st century.
Shyness as a trait is characterized by a preoccupation with the self during social interactions – real or imagined (Cheek et al., 1986; Schmidt & Buss, 2010). It manifests itself in substantial discomfort and inhibition in the presence of strangers or casual acquaintances. Shy individuals believe they lack the skills and behavioral patterns to interact successfully in social situations and to make a good impression on others (Jones, Briggs, & Smith, 1986). Importantly, shy individuals may or may not prefer solitude over social company. Thus, shyness – albeit related – is typically distinguished from sociability and introversion (e.g., Crozier, 1986). Based on the three-dimensional theory of personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism), Eysenck and Eysenck (1969), for example, perceived a closer connection of shyness to their neuroticism dimension than to their extraversion/introversion dimension. Moreover, standard instruments for the measurement of shyness such as the scale by Cheek and Buss (1981) explicitly aim at distinguishing shyness from sociability. Shyness scales typically show good discriminant validity in this regard (for a review, see Schmidt & Buss, 2010). Shyness is conceptually distinct from loneliness, but shyness can be a source of fewer offline social contacts (Jones & Carpenter, 1986) and loneliness (e.g., Asendorpf, 2000; Cheek & Busch, 1981). Relatedly, there is ample evidence on a link between shyness and lower well-being (e.g., Liu et al., 2018; Rowsell & Coplan, 2013). Shy individuals tend to evade social interactions, are more reluctant to engage in social activities, and, thus, perceive less social support which, in turn, may reduce their subjective well-being (Jackson, Fritch, Nagasaka, & Gunderson, 2002; Zhao, Kong, & Wang, 2013).
Some aspects of SNS communication may be particularly appealing to shy individuals. SNSs provide means to communicate with others in an asynchronous way, loosening the requirement to respond instantly. Although SNSs are not the anonymous spaces that researchers had in mind when connecting personality to the 1990s Internet (e.g., Roberts, Smith, & Pollock, 2000), SNSs provide options to hide or embellish parts of the self that shy individuals are often ruminating upon, prior to and during social interactions (e.g., imperfect skin and hair, blushing, stuttering). And shy individuals might see and find opportunities to follow others’ social interactions without the need to contribute and without the danger to be ridiculed as the odd bystander.
Other aspects, however, might be not appealing at all for shy individuals. Much of the SNSs content is based on users' contributions (e.g., posting photos) and others' responses to the shared content (e.g., re-tweeting, liking). These activities are typically visible by many other users with a certain degree of connection. Individuals who tend to be particularly wary about others' reactions might be concerned about others’ opinions and public feedback on own activities, which makes a SNS a rather unattractive environment for shy individuals. Moreover, SNS contacts are often offline friends and acquaintances and their friends and acquaintances (Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008). Given that shyness is associated with fewer offline social contacts (Jones & Carpenter, 1986), shy individuals should have a harder time at building a social network on SNSs.
Whereas some characteristics of SNSs are likely appealing to shy individuals, other aspects are likely repulsive. Prior research on the link between shyness and SNS use has been scattered across different disciplines, using a number of different SNS use measures, including measures on overall SNS use, such as the amount of time spent or login frequency, number of contacts (e.g., Facebook friends), active contributions (e.g., posting text or photos), and passively following others’ contributions (cf. Verduyn, Ybarra, Resibois, Jonides, & Kross, 2017). Starting our synthesis on prior work in the field, our first aim was to provide an estimate of the relationship between shyness and SNS use, irrespective of how SNS use was operationalized.
Our second aim was to examine the influence of the actual usage aspect. We expected that the association between shyness and SNS use would be moderated by the type of SNS use examined (Hypothesis 1). Given the asynchronicity and partial anonymity provided by many applications within SNSs we expected a positive relationship between shyness and general SNS use (time spent, logins)(Hypothesis 2a). Passive use of SNSs, such as observing others' posts without actively commenting or contributing oneself, should be particularly characteristic of shy individuals. Thus, we also expected a positive relationship between shyness and passive SNS behaviors (Hypothesis 2b). Shyness is associated with smaller social networks in the offline world (Jones & Carpenter, 1986). Establishing a connection or ‘friendship’ on SNSs requires own initiative, or the initiative of others, the latter being a function of the offline network and an individual's self-presentation on the SNS. We assumed that shy users are less likely to take advantage of the opportunity to establish connections or ‘friendships’ on SNSs. Thus, we expected a negative relationship between shyness and the number of contacts (Hypothesis 2c). As outlined above, shy individuals, while generally attracted to SNSs, should be less inclined to engage in active contributions, such as posting photos or status updates. Therefore we expected a negative relationship between shyness and active SNS use (Hypothesis 2d).
Prior research indicates that shyness is negatively associated with subjective well-being (e.g., Liu et al., 2018; Rowsell & Coplan, 2013). At the same time SNS network size is positively associated with well-being (meta-analytic evidence by Yin, de Vries, Gentile, & Wang, 2018). Following our hypothesis that shyness is associated with fewer SNS contacts, the number of SNS contacts could mediate the association between shyness and well-being (see Fig. 1). We addressed this mediation model as an additional research question (cf. Cheung, 2014).
Section snippets
Meta-analytic database
Primary studies were identified in January 2018 searching various scientific databases (PsycINFO, SocINDEX, ERIC, Medline), ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database, and Google Scholar (first 1000 results) using the keywords shyness in combination with social networking, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, MySpace, Friendster, Sixdegrees, Livejournal, Orkut, Linkedin, XING, StudiVZ, Renren, Bebo, Weibo, Habbo, or Hyves. Studies were included in the database if they administered a validated
Results
The meta-analysis comprised 17 independent samples including a total of N = 6989 participants. The studies were published between 2009 and 2017. In most studies (82%), shyness was measured with variants of the Cheek and Buss (1981) scale. The measurement precision of the shyness scales was generally good with an average alpha coefficient of 0.87 (Min = 0.79, Max = 0.93). The mean percentage of female respondents was M = 66% (SD = 9%) and the mean age was M = 23.61 (SD = 4.69) years. The
Discussion
At the early stages of Mark Zuckerberg's pursuit of developing Facebook, his roommates wondered whether he created the platform to overcome his timidity and shyness (Kirkpatrick, 2010). Following the popularity of Facebook and other SNSs, researchers, along with journalists and the general public, have explored the relationship between shyness and the engagement with SNS sites. Whereas some evidence has pointed out the new opportunities of social behavior in the social media world (“social
Conclusion
Our quantitative summary of available research suggests that shy people are generally not more or less attracted to social media than less shy people. Shyness is, however, related to fewer active posting and sharing of content and to fewer contacts such as friends on Facebook, pointing at less social capital and connectedness online. In turn, the smaller social circle and social support can contribute to less social well-being reported by shy SNS users. Overall, the identified effects were
Funding
This work was supported by grants of the German Research Foundation (DFG) awarded to Markus Appel (AP 207/2-1).
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Acknowledgements
Author contributions: MA started the original study conceptualization. MA conducted and supervised data collection and coding of the studies, TG conducted the data analysis and made a draft for the results section and the supplementary material, MA drafted the introduction and discussion sections. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
We thank Caroline Marker for her input in the early stages of this project.
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