The Role of Communication Apprehension and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Using Instagram and Selfie

Today, social networks and smart phones have become very popular. One of the interesting topics in the field of information science and cognition is the study of userschr('39') information behavior in mobile-based social networks. In this area, this study examines the role of psychological variables: communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of communication Apprehension, Expression of the True Self, and Fear of Negative Evaluation in Instagram and Selfie use from the perspective of undergraduate students of Birjand University.

This correlational study used 4 questionnaires "Communication Apprehension" (McCroskey, 1982), "Fear of Negative Evaluation" (Leary, 1983), " Instagram Use " (Lazebna, 2015) and "Taking a selfie" (Lazebna, 2015) (online) in a random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Birjand (357 participants).

Communication Apprehension and selfie use were significantly higher in women than in men. However,  there was no significant differences shown for  the other variables.  Instagram usage was above average and sending  and edited selfies were below average. The increase of most of the psychological variables investigated also showed the increase of use of Instagram, selfies and edited selfies. Also, with the increase of communication apprehension, the fear of  negative evaluation increased.

Review of the literature revealed that  there wasn’t any interest in the field of  knowledge and information science for the topic at the national level. Although, there were limited studies presented in the international arena.