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A loud gulp. Wide eyes, staring at the ground. My mind goes blank, as a cold chill runs down my back. The cold sweat slowly makes its way to the surface of my skin as I frantically try to stay in control of my breathing. I can feel my entire body tense up, my throat tightening with every passing second. The world around me sounds increasily quiet, as the sound of the rapid heartbeat in my ears grows deafening. I try to speak, but barely a whisper escapes me. 'Oh no', I think to myself. 'What will they think of me? I should have never left home.'
Social anxiety, though a very human experience, never stops being one of the more uncomfortable feelings to have. The National Institute of Mental Health, defines it as follows: "Social anxiety disorder is an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others."
When someone experiences social anxiety, a sudden desire makes a strong appearance: the wish to no longer be perceived by the people around them, all to be able to shake this uncomfortable feeling. This can cause for avoidant behaviors, leading to people limiting the amount of times they leave their homes and have to interact with others. This can grow to increasingly extreme measures, such as closing the curtains of their home, not opening the door when the doorbell rings, not picking up the phone, etc. In the pursuit of avoiding the discomfort of social anxiety, one ends up avoiding the social world altogether, creating a world fit for only one. This however, does not mean that this is the reality they want for themselves, especially considering the fact that humans are social creatures. It can end up creating quite the conundrum for the person suffering from social anxiety.
Social Anxiety Robot, KittenBot (YouTube)
Luckily, robots don't have to experience social anxiety. Well, except for the one unfortunate robot, as designed by the creators of the YouTube channel KittenBot. This robot, when approached from a distance, gleefully tries to close the gap. However, when the human tries to approach it in a more intense manner or gets too close, the robot anxiously backs up. It will have a slight moment of panic, and as time goes by, will start showing its anxiety as shown in the attached image, while still retreating. The Social Anxiety Robot does a good job at showcasing how pushing oneself unto someone experiencing social anxiety is a bad idea, as it will only make them want to retreat more. The robot however, does not give the human the feeling of social anxiety as well.
One can witness the workings of this robot here.
Artificial Creature
Because of this, I have come up with the artificial creature 'Peek-No-Boo', that will not only showcase one of the main effects social anxiety can have, but will also attempt to inflict a feeling of anxiety upon the viewer. The idea is as follows:
Pau Casals, November 21, 2018
When looking at the artificial creature head on, one will see a square frame, representing a windowsill, with closed curtains attached to it. This represents the hidden attribute that accompanies social anxiety. When the viewer turns away, however, the curtains will move slightly, moved by a singular finger, opening up just enough for one eye to be able to peer out, which will stare intently at the viewer. If the viewer turns back once again, the curtains will quickly close again, causing for the viewer to only see the moving curtains, hopefully giving them a feeling of discomfort and that of 'feeling watched'. Because 'Peek-No-Boo' will never open the curtains when actually faced with the viewer, the viewer will not be able to address this discomfort head-on and will not even be able to verify that it is being watched, creating that same feeling of "I think I'm being watched and judged but I don't know by who or what exactly". The idea is that this will hopefully instill in them a mild form of anxiety and a better understanding of what anxiety feels like.
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