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

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(chr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('39')))39chr(chr(chr('39')39chr('39'))39chr(chr('39')39chr('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 University of Birjand (357 participants). Communication Apprehension and selfie use were higher in women than men, but the age of the participants had no role on the variables. Instagram Use was above average and sending selfies and edited selfies was below average. With the increase of most of the studied psychological variables, the use of Instagram, selfies and edited selfies increased.