Strange form of social anxiety?

[Sushuis]

I'm fine most of the time, when out and about. I can talk to strangers, hold a conversation about any topic, even lead a group conversation and not feel anxious at all. I didn't think I could have social anxiety because in the real world, I don't.

But online, I do.

I'm.. not active, to put it mildly. I don't post anything, like videos or comment on anything. I don't chat with people, which makes me feel guilty and sometimes ashamed, especially when people reach out to me... Last time I posted anything on Facebook was a few years ago.

And I feel like it's getting worse.

Wonder if some of that is because I'm so insanely visual. I look for clues in body language and facial expression, respond to that even more than what is said out loud (all people do this of course, to some extent), and when that info is unavailable in forums like this one, I get anxious.

I was actually shaking for a while when writing this, and my dog was going ballistic, jumping on my lap and licking my face. She always knows when something's wrong.

For a while I debated if I should write anything at all.. but first step conquering this fear is admitting it. Online.

[CharlesH]

Do you think it's fear of judgment?

[userguide]

Originally Posted by Sushuis

I'm fine most of the time, when out and about. I can talk to strangers, hold a conversation about any topic, even lead a group conversation and not feel anxious at all. I didn't think I could have social anxiety because in the real world, I don't.

But online, I do.

I'm.. not active, to put it mildly. I don't post anything, like videos or comment on anything. I don't chat with people, which makes me feel guilty and sometimes ashamed, especially when people reach out to me... Last time I posted anything on Facebook was a few years ago.

And I feel like it's getting worse.

Wonder if some of that is because I'm so insanely visual. I look for clues in body language and facial expression, respond to that even more than what is said out loud (all people do this of course, to some extent), and when that info is unavailable in forums like this one, I get anxious.

I was actually shaking for a while when writing this, and my dog was going ballistic, jumping on my lap and licking my face. She always knows when something's wrong.

For a while I debated if I should write anything at all.. but first step conquering this fear is admitting it. Online.

Thats unusual. I always believed online is easy and anxiety free ( except the debut ofc, when you got to first use a tool like a social app, but that's normal for people who care a bit about what they do).


The visual stimuli makes sense to me. I've recently met an old friend and we talked for several hours, I actually enjoyed the fact I don't need to be careful as usual, but once we moved to online contact we struggle to have a high bandwidth information exchange.

Either he's extremely busy or unwilling to talk with me(unlikely) or we both in fact need visual or auditory clues for the conversation to go smooth.

FB - I got thousands of likes and the only original post I made was a technical question on a technical forum once. Who cares about FB ?

[soulsearcher]

Hello, maybe its because you need the body language and to speak to people some people can't do online or over the phone communication.


I myself don't like the online thing and struggle offline face to face but i am working on it just some people have to speak face to face social media i don't like to write things either i might be wrong but thought it might be worth telling you