Parties

"Social anxiety" as a term bugs me,only because I don't understand how some people seem to not have it.

Any time I'm with a group of people, part of me takes the scene in and checks a few things out.
1) There are more people here than me, and the consensus is probably that I should keep my pants on.
2) I probably don't know these people as well as I think I do, and most wouldn't want to hear talk of pants.
3) They are human, just like me, and each have their own unique relationship with the universe.

At this point, I figure everyone is on the same page, but there's still plenty of room for variation. Trying to figure out who in a given room is willing to talk about how much pants is a universal source of anxiety. If a person isn't anxious about it before striking up a conversation, they usually are after.

But with people that deal with "social anxiety", there's at least one more criterion. Some variation of
4) The universe probably likes these people more than me.

And when one considers how many entities are in the room or the world or the universe, that's a real concern. Or it seems that way to me.

So if it's real, why should anyone be anxious about it? And if it isn't real, how do so many notice it in the first place?