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> Relax and celebrate the fact your addiction reflects a normal urge to connect with others! Addicting partly because it's so easy. It's much harder than going

by gexla 8y ago

> Relax and celebrate the fact your addiction reflects a normal urge to connect with others! Addicting partly because it's so easy. It's much harder than going into "impro" mode and striking up a conversation which will hold someone's interest around just about any topic. Another angle is that I know people who have social anxiety who spend a lot of time chatting on FB. I suppose there are some pros and cons to this, but being hypersocial on a cell doesn't seem to ease face to face social anxiety. It's better than nothing though, I have also seen these people get involved in real activities through these interactions. For me, hypersocial is hyperdistracted. I can't stand to chat more than a few minutes. Much prefer pricking the awkward bubble which surrounds people and breaking into a silly conversation. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but the Ycombinator community knows all about experimentation. ;)

aplc0r 8y ago
As someone who has struggled with social anxiety to varying degrees throughout life, online interactions are a bandage for the much larger issue. Communicating via text without the pressure of timing (generally) gives you the ability to think over your words and perfect the message. It also allows you to easily avoid and exit conversations you don't want to participate in. This doesn't help you to build some of the skills that are necessary to be social offline. In my experience, social anxiety is being hung-up on all the "what ifs". I want all the information up front, and time to think over the "right" response. That mentality is enabled online. Like everything, balance is key. I do believe that having the ability to communicate so easily online has benefited me socially overall. However, I have the feeling that if we had been as connected as we are today back when I was kid, I wouldn't have been able to reach that balance at the point I did.

by gexla 8y ago

aplc0r 8y ago

As someone who has struggled with social anxiety to varying degrees throughout life, online interactions are a bandage for the much larger issue. Communicating via text without the pressure of timing (generally) gives you the ability to think over your words and perfect the message. It also allows you to easily avoid and exit conversations you don't want to participate in. This doesn't help you to build some of the skills that are necessary to be social offline. In my experience, social anxiety is being hung-up on all the "what ifs". I want all the information up front, and time to think over the "right" response. That mentality is enabled online. Like everything, balance is key. I do believe that having the ability to communicate so easily online has benefited me socially overall. However, I have the feeling that if we had been as connected as we are today back when I was kid, I wouldn't have been able to reach that balance at the point I did.