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Role of Personality Traits in Social Media Behavior
Introduction
Social media has become one of the most prevalent communication and interaction digital tools in contemporary times. Approximately 67-75% of adults in developed Western countries use social media in some capacity, with the penetration typically growing higher in young adults aged 18-29 (Pew Research Center, 2021). Meanwhile, it is known that individuals exhibit personality types, the well-known Big 5 framework will be used for this paper. Personality traits are correlated with social media use and behavior as well as influence of social media on attitude formation.
Personality Traits
Contemporary psychologists argue that there are five primary dimensions of personality, known as the Big 5 personality traits. These dimensions are extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, with descriptions seen in the diagram above. First proposed by D.W. Fiske in 1949, the theory has been expanded on to create a simple but comprehensive framework for the personality traits. It is key to note that each trait represents a continuum between two polar opposites, such as extraversion is the continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme introversion, and the majority of people lie in between the ends of each dimension. Notably, studies have shown that the five traits are universal across cultures, and researchers believe they have biological origins, suggesting an evolutionary explanation (Cherry, 2021).
Social Media Use
Some research indicates that the Big 5 personality traits impact social media use in the first place. A study by Alan and Kabadayi (2016) of generation y users, found that individuals with high levels of extraversion and openness personality characteristics were more prone to use social media platforms where they could easily socialize and experience the feel of community, contributing to their social capital. Meanwhile, individuals with high level of neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness were less likely to engage with social media platforms, at the least not actively or consistently. Social media plays a role in the psychological, emotional, and social development for Generation Y, so given the long-term impact towards mental health discourages these other personality types from actively engaging with the platforms (Alan and Kabadayi, 2016).
Yu et al. (2020) similarly conducted a literature review, finding that in addition to extraversion and openness, neuroticism also played a part in positive use of social media. The extraversion and openness to experiences was interconnected to emotional stability (high neuroticism) that predicted social media use. Conscientiousness and emotional stability moderate the relationship between affiliation and self-disclosure, while openness to new experience, high neuroticism, and extraversion moderate the connection between popularity and self-disclosure. Finally, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extraversion impact the interrelation between self-esteem and self-disclosure. The authors suggest that young adults with neurotic personalities and openness to experience have a greater potential to use and understand the strength of social media, becoming immersed in the specific interaction (Yu et al. 2020).
Studies have also focused on the associations between personality traits and social-media use frequency, particularly addiction. Results vary, and due to the varying nature of social media platforms, some personality types may differ. In general, studies found that extraverts and neurotics are more likely to be addicted to any form of social media. Meanwhile, those less open to experience, lack of emotional stability, and less conscientious are traits associated with Facebook addiction. People that are introverted, less agreeable, and less conscientious have the strongest potential of addiction to Twitter. Meanwhile, neuroticism, alexithymia, and avoidant attachment are traits of Instagram addiction (Kircaburun & Griffiths, 2018).
Social Media Behavior
User activity on online social network platforms help to understand online behavior, preferences, and personalities. Research suggests that differing personalities lead to formation of various social relations and interactive behaviors on social networks via their profiles, engagement, and activities. There are two distinct hypotheses proposed to describe the relationship between online and offline behavior, the first suggesting that individuals with existing social structures and strong pro-social behaviors reap more social benefits from these platforms and online communication. Meanwhile, the social-compensation hypothesis argues that less socially-adept people who struggle with face-to-face social connections will use the digital platforms as a means to enhance their social lives by building relationships online (Gosling et al., 2011).
Gosling et al. (2011) found that personality traits were consistently manifested in Facebook behaviors, proving that online behavior parallels offline behavior. For extraverts, social networks were a medium used to exercise the need for socialization, associated with behaviors such as maintaining up-to-date presence and tending social bonds (adding friends and commenting). High agreeableness was associated with viewing a large number of pages of their own, friends, and friends of friends. For low conscientiousness individuals, social networks were associated with procrastination and more time spent on Facebook in comparison to high conscientiousness. Finally, openness associated with adding and replacing photographs and engaging in wide range of activities. Neuroticism did not draw any association to behaviors in this study (Gosling et al., 2011).
Meanwhile, in their research Bowden-Green et al. (2021) created five motives for social media use and tracked how different personality types associated with them. The five motive categories included virtual community, companionship, exhibitionism, relationship maintenance, and passing time. They found that all traits other than neuroticism positively associated with maintaining relationships, being significant for those scoring higher in extraversion, openness, and conscientiousness. Extraversion also positively related to exhibitionism. Agreeableness had a positive effect on virtual community, but negative effect on exhibitionism. Meanwhile, neuroticism reacted positively to companionship, exhibitionism, and passing time, while conscientiousness related negatively to these aspects. These findings indicate that social media does on address individual needs uniformly. It is also important to identify that factors of age, gender, and context (such as the pandemic lockdowns) can also strongly impact some of these behaviors in relation to personality types (Bowden-Green et al., 2021).
Content and Activities
Specific content on social media such as profile pictures, number of friends, number of likes, status updates can be used by researchers to relatively accurate identify the users levels of the Big 5 personality traits. Researchers have found that what people like on social media is closely related to personality, with likes sometimes better defining personality and interests than descriptions by people who knew them in real life (Seldman, 2020).
A range of activities and content is associated with each personality type. Extraverts are the most easily identifiable on social media as in real life as they are more active, more popular, highly engaged, and interact with their friends on social media in variety of ways. Neuroticism is similar, being active, but also associated with negative expression and emotions, and attempts to present an idealized version of themselves. Conscientious individuals are cautious by nature, and have the least social media use and engagement, and when they do, it is usually in regard to non-personal matters such as work or studies. Agreeable people generally post more photos, use cheerful language, and positively engage with others. Finally, openness is associated with using social media for interests such as seeking information, talking with others about their problems, or play games (Azucar et al., 2018).
Everything from likes and number of friends to status updates and linguistic analysis, and everything else leave a digital footprint, which is then analyzed by social media platforms to tailor individual content to extend time spent on there. This is a considerable problem, that taken all the factors and behaviors, the social media algorithms typically know users better than they know themselves and use this data towards commercial interests.
Conclusion
The research presented in this paper indicates that there is a notable connection between the Big 5 personality types to certain social media behaviors and purposes of social media use. Extraversion and neuroticism are associated with posting more updates and content, while extraverts also attempt to fulfill their social needs. Agreeableness is neutral, with some social behavior and posting of photos. Conscientious individuals typically use less social media, while high openness is predictive of seeking information about others and activities such as gaming. There are certain patterns to behavior based on the personality types, and social media profile content and activity which can be accurately deduced. Therefore, the paradigm that online behavior mimics offline behavior remains true, with only the neuroticism domain being less accurate since these individuals tend to present idealized images of themselves.
References
Alan, K.A., & Kabadayi, E.T. (2016). The effect of personal factors on social media usage of young consumers. Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, 595-602. Web.
Azucar, D., Marengo, D., & Settanni, M. (2018). Predicting the Big 5 personality traits from digital footprints on social media: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 124, 150159. Web.
Bowden-Green, T., Hinds, J., & Joinson, A. (2021). Personality and motives for social media use when physically distanced: A uses and gratifications approach. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.
Cherry, K. (2021). The big five personality traits. Web.
Gosling, S. D., Augustine, A. A., Vazire, S., Holtzman, N., & Gaddis, S. (2011). Manifestations of personality in online social networks: self-reported Facebook-related behaviors and observable profile information. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 14(9), 483488. Web.
Kircaburun, K., & Griffiths, M. D. (2018). Instagram addiction and the Big Five of personality: The mediating role of self-liking. Journal of Behavioral Addictions, 7(1), 158170. Web.
Pew Research Center. (2021). Social media fact sheet. Web.
Seldman, G. (2020). What can we learn about people from their social media? Psychology Today. Web.
Vital, A. (2018). Big five personality traits Infographic. Web.
Yu, T.-K., Lee, N.-H., & Chao, C.-M. (2020). The moderating effects of young adults personality traits on social media immersion. Frontiers in Psychology, 11. Web.
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