I’m thinking a lot about the social spaces that people create these days, in relation to some ideas I have for a project. This report on shyness by Dr. Zimbardo has some fascinating data.

” The steadily increasing percentage of young adults who report being shy (from the earlier 40% to the current nearly 50% level) may be analyzed as negative acculturation to a confluence of social forces operating in the United States. We maintain that this rise in shyness is accompanied by spreading social isolation within a cultural context of indifference to others and a lowered priority given to being sociable, or in learning the complex network of skills necessary to be socially competent. A number of interacting social, technological, and economic processes are operating to reduce daily, ordinary, “real time” face-to-face interactions with other people. This lessened frequency of shared social experiences means that young people may not be learning the complex verbal and non-verbal language of social interaction. Without observing models engaging in pleasurable interactions, and without regularly practicing in this social exchange medium, there is a failure to develop adequate social skills, an awkwardness when having to interact with others, and thus a lowered priority for doing so. In addition to the failure to develop social skills, there seems to be an emerging reduction in emotional exchanges that promote intimacy, and in social sharing that promotes reciprocity.

The new Cyberspace generation of the nineties may be seen as an accretion on the TV generation that fostered passive, often isolated viewing of television for many hours a day. The use of video games, CD-rom games and stories, web surfing, email, and other technological marvels all obviate the need to take time to seek out direct contact with other people for fun, friendship or work exchanges. Indeed, social time is being replaced with nanosecond-based efficient exchange of information within a highly structured, externally imposed format. While some shy people benefit from using the anonymity and structural control features of email, the danger is that for many others virtual on-line reality may become a substitute for the reality of human connectedness. We have been told by concerned parents of their young children who prefer “chat time” on their computers than actually talking face to face with their class mates. Computer interaction enables the user to maintain a higher degree of control over the interaction than in direct, informal social communication. “