I understand quite well. I was referring to the description in the article, which I think is vague and off base. As someone who still has some issues with social anxiety I know quite well what it involves.
I was just using your post to mention to all that fear of open criticism is not what shyness is about, fear of repeating a failure without understanding what is going wrong is. Most people think they are helping a shy person by holding back their criticism, opinions, and observations but that is only adding to the problem. After a few painful failures the shy person gives up from a lack of available critical information. The social custom is to say nothing directly to the shy person but instead using the indirect and very unhelpful route of talking to others behind their back.