COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION IN A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Communication apprehension has been studies for over 2,000 years. Technology continues to develop, and more communication choices become available to an individual. These resources allow individuals to avoid face-to-face (FtF) communication, if they so choose, and connect with others in different ways. For instance, some students report having difficultly delivering speeches in a classroom but have what seems to be little hesitation to posting on social media. There is a need to collect data to determine if there is a difference in apprehension levels for social networking and FtF communication apprehension, because of the limited research on the subject, and growth of social networking sites today. The current study surveyed undergraduate students who were registered in an introductory- level public speaking class and utilized an adaptation of McCroskey's PRCA-24 to survey to measure the different apprehension levels felt. The results of the current study found that communication apprehension has increase in the last 34 years among university students. Students are also reporting higher levels of apprehension for FtF context questions than questions related to social networking sites.