In my podcast Connection between online interactions and anxiety, I’ll be discussing the findings that I have observed in my experiments. The experiments that I have done include the role of discord and how it helped connect many people together. Discussing the key points of interactions, similar interests and reduction of anxiety. The second observation is the influence of online gaming, the key points include, judgment free zone, interaction from the comfort of their home and finally using their interest as a way to feel anxiety free. The last research I have conducted was how social media can play a role to encourage. I observed how it creates a play for activism. Participants who have anxiety can use social media as a place to not connect upon issues they care deeply about, but as well as a place to get encouragement from others, to participate in activities, discussion or rally. I’ll be discussing how I was able to obtain the given information with my experiments and what they all resulted in, or what they found where. I’ll be discussing what these findings mean, as well how these experiments have helped many people who experience anxiety, and what it means for them. I’ll wrap it up with the overall message upon how social anxiety can be reduced with the help of various online communicating strategies.

Audio: Connection between online interactions and anxiety 

Script

Hi everyone, that’s currently listening, I hope you all are doing well. My name is Ryan Olson, and I did my research on the connection between anxiety and online communication. Throughout my studies I broke it into three major components in order to really capture how social anxiety has been influenced by online communications. The three topics I’ll be going over will be. Where is the most common place where people meet up, and why is it important? the second being how gaming has helped reduce anxiety for many individuals, and lastly how encouragement plays a role with individuals with anxiety.

 Now, I personally have chosen these three experiments and observations because, from my past observations and experiences I have with these three concepts, I have found it to be the most common way to have helped with many people who have experienced anxiety. 

I’ll be discussing what my findings were, as well as how I have found them, using certain methods that best fit the given research.

Starting first will be “Where is the most common place where people meet up to communicate and why?” When reading articles from past scholars as well as from my past experience, I have found that discord was one the most popular places people communicate. Now, why is that a key factor? Throughout my research and analysis from my given surveys, that I have given to individuals that meet online who have experienced social anxiety before, I have found that people have a hard time connecting with social anxiety IRL, and discord allows people to communicate easier. How does discord help you may ask? Based on my survey and my daily observation, I have found that discord creates channels and subcategories that people can join based on their interest. This is very helpful for people who have a hard time connecting to others IRL. It allows individuals to chat with others who have very similar interests with them, without the fear of irl judgment, and discord allows individuals the ease to leave the chat room whenever needed, when uncomfortableness is present. This not only allows others to communicate virtually without the fear of judgment in person, but as well as easy interaction, one can decide when to talk and when to leave when they feel like it. Within my research, I have also found that people also use discord for engaging reasoning. 

For that I studied how students use discord with learning. Oftentimes students would feel anxiety when talking in class, whether it be answering a question or asking for. What discord has helped them with was the ability to connect with other students virtually, with ability to talk upon one’s assignment with either a small chat room or one on one, with the IRL interaction of doing it in person or class. This not only helped with one’s anxiety, but made it easier for students to feel connected, even if it means doing virtual interactions. This was not the only way online communication has helped, it has also helped through gaming.

In my second observation I studied how gaming has helped reduce anxiety for many.” In order to maintain the given research, I took three approaches. The approaches include looking upon past scholarly articles, creating a survey, and finally conducting interviews from willing individuals who were present in my survey. I wanted to observe these topics because for many, myself included, I found that gaming was a sort of coping mechanism, for those who experience anxiety. Why is that helpful? Similar to the discord engagement it allows individuals to engage with one and another with a common interest activity. That is because many individuals fear first impression anxiety. Whether that be in a classroom, first date, or trying to make new friends IRL. What I have found that online gaming does, is that many people use gaming as a safe place, due to that fact if one were to judge it’s easy to mute that person, and not worry about them. Another factor I have found was that when individuals are doing an activity, they have much interest in, they feel less anxiety and more relaxed. I found that not only helps reduce their anxiety but their ability to connect with others online. When people are at their most comfortable, they are more accepting and engage with others, rather than playing with individuals via video games, or communicating about strategies with their teammates. One of my interviewees made a nice statement upon which I agree. They mentioned how they can engage with others all over the world, from the safest place they know, their home. To me it’s shows that people can connect with others without the first impressions or judgment part, knowing that even if there are to be a individual to dislike them, they can have ease and accessibility to leave the game, or mute them, without the worry of ever seeing them again, as in a IRL class, a first impression can give one anxiety upon how they act, knowing that they have to see that person each day.

For my last observation I studied social media apps and how they can encourage others to engage more. For these experiences I choose social media as it’s another most common place for individuals to interact. There are many methods or routes you could’ve taken for this, but the route I have chosen was how social media encourages others through activism. I choose these examples, because I believe that there are many people throughout the world who want to help through activism but have social anxiety stopping. In order to obtain the information and results I took two approaches. The two approaches being observation on social media activism accounts and post, and scholarly authors who have done very similar research. What I have found was that people were able to connect with issues that they wanted to support or issues that were involved around them. 

This was because organizations, individuals, or activists use social media as a guide to help them find their voice, get out their comfort zone, or start a movement. This was because many individuals who wanted to help support a cause would follow social media accounts who create posts that only bring the light to the subject but as well as encourage others to help. Through these posts many people would interact through the comment section. What I saw was when individuals express how they feel or want to help but mentioned that they suffer from social anxiety. There would be many replies that would support them or encourage them noting that they are not alone or would reply with encouragement along with they can help non socially. This helps individuals to feel more encouraged to participate in rallies or interact in group discussions, knowing that people are not going to judge them, and are there for the same cause as they are. Overall creating the concept to be less anxiety reducing for many.

Overall, what should be the takeaway from these is the various way’s online communication can help many individuals who may experience social anxiety. Online communications present an alternative reality for individuals who wish to not talk in person due to the fear of anxiety from either judgment, first impressions, or interactions, but instead use communicating online as a safe place to connect with others. Using the online aspect, individuals can use online interactions as not only a safe place, but also as a way to practice irl communication that can prepare them for interaction in the real world. That’s my podcast and thank you for listening.

Link To Podcast https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DRjNdbNm9Wou4RGl77r2Xf3eS9OydAob/view?usp=sharing