You can also find places to socialize online by looking earlier in this chapter at support groups . There are many newsgroups to consider, such as alt.support.shyness. Zimbardo sees shyness, extreme or mild, as an enormous social problem. We must remember that in addition to genes, shyness is partly a result of societal pressure to be successful, to be beautiful, to be competitive and to impress others. These pressures don't have to be there.
Shyness reduces our sharing, caring, and loving one another.
It increases our loneliness, being picked on, losses due to hesitation, and other social problems. Fortunately, exposure in vivo, social skills training, and cognitive techniques have all been shown to help social phobias.