In plain language
People who struggle to control their internet use often also report social anxiety, but which comes first? Does anxiety about social situations drive people online, or does compulsive internet use worsen social anxiety? Because most previous research relied on one-off surveys, this question of direction — crucial for designing treatments — remained unanswered. This study tracked the dynamics as they unfolded in daily life.
The researchers used ecological momentary assessment: 122 young adults in Chile answered brief surveys on their phones five times a day for 10 days, reporting their internet addiction symptoms, social anxiety, avoidance of social interactions, and use of the internet to cope with loneliness. Mixed-effects models then tested which experiences predicted which later ones, moment to moment.
The results pointed to a vicious cycle. Internet addiction predicted later increases in social anxiety symptoms, but social anxiety did not predict later internet addiction. Instead, the moments that fuelled internet addiction were more specific behaviours: avoiding social interactions and going online to cope with loneliness. Importantly, these dynamics differed markedly from person to person — for some people avoidance was the key driver, for others online coping with loneliness, for some both, and for about a quarter neither. The authors argue that interventions for social anxiety should address technology use, and should be personalised rather than one-size-fits-all.
Key findings
- Internet addiction preceded later increases in symptoms of social anxiety, but the reverse relationship was not observed — social anxiety did not predict later internet addiction.
- Moments of avoiding social interactions predicted later increases in internet addiction (b = 0.736, p < 0.001, a medium effect).
- Using the internet to cope with loneliness also predicted later increases in internet addiction (b = 0.085, p < 0.001, a medium effect).
- Together the findings suggest a vicious cycle: socially anxious individuals avoid others and go online to cope with loneliness, which escalates uncontrolled internet use, which in turn worsens social anxiety over time.
- Effects were highly heterogeneous across individuals: for about 24% of participants both avoidance and online coping with loneliness mattered, for about 51% only one of the two mattered, and for about 24% neither did.
- The study used intensive real-time sampling — five assessments a day for 10 days in 122 young adults — supporting a personalised, process-based approach to treating social anxiety in the digital age.
How to cite
APA
Hernández, C., Ferrada, M., Ciarrochi, J., Quevedo, S., Garcés, J. A., Hansen, R., & Sahdra, B. (2024). The cycle of solitude and avoidance: A daily life evaluation of the relationship between internet addiction and symptoms of social anxiety. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1337834. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1337834
BibTeX
@article{hernandez2024cycle,
author = {Hern{\'a}ndez, Crist{\'o}bal and Ferrada, Mart{\'i}n and Ciarrochi, Joseph and Quevedo, Sergio and Garc{\'e}s, Jos{\'e} Antonio and Hansen, Raimundo and Sahdra, Baljinder},
title = {The cycle of solitude and avoidance: a daily life evaluation of the relationship between internet addiction and symptoms of social anxiety},
journal = {Frontiers in Psychology},
year = {2024},
volume = {15},
pages = {1337834},
doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1337834}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.