Inequality Has Created a Shyness Epidemic
Economic growth has made life more comfortable than ever. So why has anxiety spiked?
In an article in Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, her “style coach,” Martha Beck, discusses her experience of what she calls “party anxiety.” Beck says she is “one of the millions of party-impaired people… social-phobes [who] dread party talk,” who are “petrified of saying something stupid, something that will reveal us as the jackasses we are, rather than the social maestros we wish we were.” Beck says she felt that she “needed a whole armory full of impressive weapons to survive a party — things like cleverness, thin thighs, social connections, and wealth… Every act, from choosing clothes to making small talk, is a fear-based defense against criticism.”
We are a social species, and our sensitivity to each other and our ability to avoid behavior that might offend others are necessary skills. But a normal and beneficial sensitivity to people around us is being triggered so frequently and so strongly in everyday life today that, for many, it has become an intensely counterproductive reaction. Feelings of insecurity are often so great that people react defensively to even minor criticism; others are seemingly so nervous of social interaction that they isolate themselves.
