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What is Social Anxiety Really about on Social Media? « Actions need to be taken to avoid generalizing and labeling certain people simply because they are believed to have social anxiety judging by how they interact or are shown in social media». Nicole Valeria Suárez Lozano
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owadays, the term “social anxiety” is used in social media especially for meme content, allowing people to build their own negative perceptions and assumptions regarding this condition. But how accurate are they? Social anxiety is the presumption or presence of an interpersonal evaluation in real or imaginary social settings. It takes place when people are concerned about the perception and evaluation that others may have of them (Leary & Kowalski, 1995). Normally, people’s perception regarding this topic might be that those who have this condition are aloof, unfriendly, and arrogant,
Lic. en Lenguas Modernas con Énfasis en Inglés y Francés
but they do not really get to see the feelings and thoughts that are inside a person (Social Anxiety Institute, 2013). Although social media negative assumptions may affect what people think about this type of anxiety, there are certain steps that can be taken to avoid this kind of misunderstandings. To begin with, people could get informed about what social anxiety is. There is a large number of definitions about this topic that could be easily found only by typing the words “social anxiety” on the Internet. Some of them might be accurate and many others can be based on people’s predisposed perceptions, causing misunder-
What social anxiety looks like. Tomada de braive.com/what-is-social-anxiety
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standings about what social anxiety is and what it is believed to be. Therefore, people must be really careful with the information they choose to believe as studies have shown that 52.8% of Internet users consider that most of its information is “reliable” or “accurate” (Ackman, 2003). Another way to get informed is by talking with specialists about the subject. For instance, a psychologist could provide all the information required to have a basic knowledge regarding social anxiety and they could even answer most of the doubts that people might have. Besides, getting informed about this topic could be useful as it might decrease bias levels, show the whole panorama of the situation, help identify patterns in someone’s behavior, and create consciousness about the struggle many people are going through. Another solution to reduce misinterpretations in people might be to inform others about it. One of the best strategies is word-ofmouth marketing, as it is one of the most influential variables in the decision-making processes in the customers making a product spread quickly and efficiently (Sarmiento, de Esteban & Antonovica, 2018). The reason for mentioning this marketing strat-
