Survey critique and methodological assessment

¶ … Social Anxiety, Loneliness, and Divergent Preferences for Cell Phone Use

The advent of communication technologies powered by computers and the Internet is creating a profound effect on the way people socially interact with other people. With the development of online modes of interaction, there are also different ways from which the self can be expressed and interactions are changed among people. In Reid and Reid's research on cell phone use among Internet users, they explored the role that calling and texting using mobile phones play for people identified to have high levels of loneliness or social anxiety. In the study, they hypothesized and proved that texting is a preferred mode of communication and interaction for socially anxious individuals and dispreferred by lonely users. Conversely, calling is the preferred mode of communication of lonely users and dispreffered by socially anxious users (433). The survey was administered online, and N=158 online users participated and answered the online questionnaire (426).

The online questionnaire itself is composed of three (3) major sections, comprising of Likert-type scales measuring the primary variables in the study. These adapted scales are the following: (1) 15-item interaction anxiousness subscale of the Leary Social Anxiousness scale, (2) 10-item abbreviated version of the UCLA Loneliness scale, and (3) 26 items Leung's online chat survey exploring different dimensions of online chat engagement (426-7). Each scale and section in the survey questionnaire provided different functions and generated different kinds of data, all for the purpose of establishing a significant relationship between cell phone usage and social anxiety and loneliness.

The usage of tested (for validity and reliability) scales in the survey ensures the researchers and end-users of the research that indeed, there is credibility in the results and recommendations developed in the study. For both the Leary Social Anxiousness and UCLA Loneliness scales, both are established scales in the sense that they are commonly used as standard measures of social anxiety and loneliness, respectively. Its usage in the context of mobile phone use is just one way manner in which these scales can be administered (Balvanes and Caputi, 2001, 82). Since these scales help determine the level of social anxiety and loneliness on an individual basis, both scales can be useful as determinants of an individual's emotional state and social disposition in studies other than those exploring the use of mobile phone. That is, these scales are applicable to other modes of communication such as face-to-face communication, online chatting, classroom interaction, among many others.