• Being nervous and anxious makes us turn our attention inward, thus becoming extremely self-conscious of what we say and how we appear.
• Social anxiety also makes us become increasingly nervous when we notice the subtle audience reactions or the body language...

No one looks forward to awkward moments, as they can be panic-inducing. So we end up desperately following certain social rules to minimize awkwardness, like ensuring conversational silence isn’t more than four seconds or having certain formulated ways to end a phone conversation.