Behind/Between Screens

This chapter will address the links between technology and communication apprehension, for better and worse. Technology has a role in increasing access to communication equity with digital spaces, dictation software, screen readers, and other assistive communication technologies. But technology can also contribute to communication avoidance and displacement of face-to-face interactions. Drawing on the literature in computer-mediated communication and communication apprehension, the chapter overviews the research on digital spaces and communication apprehension, then provides a set of recommendations for how digital spaces may challenge existing understandings of communication apprehension in an increasingly technological society.