2003 Volume 19 Issue 2 Pages 124-134
This study investigated the motives of socially anxious people who use the Internet, how they rate their communication on the Internet, and how they feel in terms of adaptation and satisfaction of their personal relationships on the net. The main results were as follows. (1) People who had a high level of trait social anxiety, especially those under twenty years of age, were highly motivated to use the Internet for the formation of personal relationships. (2) Total evaluation of Internet communication was not as favorable as that for face-to-face communication, but socially anxious people did evaluate their Internet communication higher for than for face-to-face with regard to affective evaluation. (3) Those with trait social anxiety, had greater adaptation and satisfaction in personal relationships on the Internet than those without the trait, only if the motivation to use the Internet for formation of personal relationships was high, and the evaluation of Internet communication was also high.
