The effect of Internet use and Internet dependency on shyness, loneliness, and self-consciousness in college students

The Internet has recently become popular and widely accessible to the general population. Psychologists and researchers have discussed whether sufficient benefits can be derived from Internet use, or if harmful risks such as Internet dependency or negative effects on personality may be incurred from utilizing this interactive medium. Shyness is prevalent in our society, and may result in detrimental psychological, physical, and interpersonal effects. The shy may turn to the Internet to obtain more social contact, but there has been some concern over whether the Net would create increased loneliness or shyness. This research study wished to examine how Internet dependency and usage affected shyness, loneliness, and self-consciousness over time in college students. It was hypothesized that Internet dependency and hours of Internet usage would be related to changes in self-reported shyness, loneliness, and the sub-scales of public and social anxiety self-consciousness over time. Gender and satisfaction with social relationships were also examined as moderator variables affecting the Internet-personality relationship. Several surveys were administered to college students during the course of a school semester, at two different time periods. The results indicated that sheer hours of Internet usage did not significantly affect shyness, loneliness, or self-consciousness over time. However, Internet dependency scores were related to significant negative personality changes, with the exception of public self-consciousness. Sex of research participant and relationship satisfaction contributed some variance to the moderated Internet-personality relationship, but not to the extent predicted. Supplemental statistics were also calculated to provide additional information concerning the sample. Key experimental findings, limitations of the research, and future research endeavors were discussed in some detail.