Many people are affected by shyness with friends and peers but can be quite normal, even aggressive with strangers. Shyness has physical effects such as blushing and may acuse compensating actions such as loud boisterous behaviour. The most noticeable effect of shyness is the difficulty it creates in the attempts of shypeople to make contact with others. It makes even more difficult the conversion of contact into friendship and loving. Shyness prevents a person from giving any of himself to anyone and this is crippling in regard to social contact.
Today there is a move towards smaller families, less stable families.
The result is that we are given less opportunity to practise relating to each other. We do not learn intimacy, touching, listening and takling from within ourselves. There are people who suffer shyness only mildly in particular situations and there are people whose shyness becomes a serious mental problem badly needing treatment. The average shy person, however, is the pseron suffering from lack of confidence. This invariably leads to, or is accompanied by, a lack of social graces or skills.