TY - JOUR
T1 - Social Anxiety and Online Media Choice
T2 - Visual Anonymity as a Key
AU - Hsieh, Ai Yun
AU - Lo, Shao Kang
AU - Chiu, Yu Ping
AU - Hwang, Yujong
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The study aims to examine how social anxiety moderates the effect of media selection during initial online interactions for making new friends. The study recruited 147 individuals with high levels and another 147 individuals with low levels of social anxiety who measured their intention to use various types of media to meet new friends online. The results demonstrated that individuals with high (low) social anxiety tended to choose visually (non-visually) anonymous media for initial interactions. Interestingly, once engaged in visually anonymous media, individuals with high social anxiety experienced reduced discomfort, following the expected pattern of media richness theory (MRT) by gradually adopting richer media for improved communication. The findings hold valuable implications for MRT and offer practical insights for media designers.
AB - The study aims to examine how social anxiety moderates the effect of media selection during initial online interactions for making new friends. The study recruited 147 individuals with high levels and another 147 individuals with low levels of social anxiety who measured their intention to use various types of media to meet new friends online. The results demonstrated that individuals with high (low) social anxiety tended to choose visually (non-visually) anonymous media for initial interactions. Interestingly, once engaged in visually anonymous media, individuals with high social anxiety experienced reduced discomfort, following the expected pattern of media richness theory (MRT) by gradually adopting richer media for improved communication. The findings hold valuable implications for MRT and offer practical insights for media designers.
KW - Social anxiety
KW - communication performance
KW - media richness theory
KW - visually anonymous media
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85176363746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85176363746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10447318.2023.2278303
DO - 10.1080/10447318.2023.2278303
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85176363746
SN - 1044-7318
JO - International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
JF - International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction
ER -