Uses and Gratifications of Problematic Social Media Use Among University Students: a Simultaneous Examination of the Big Five of Personality Traits, Social Media Platforms, and Social Media Use…

By Kağan Kırcaburun, Saleem Alhabash, Ş. B. Tosuntaş, Mark D. Griffiths. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 2018

519 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Recent studies suggest that users’ preferences of social media use differ according to their individual differences and use motives, and that these factors can lead to problematic social media use (PSMU) among a minority of users. The objectives of the present study were to investigate the influences of (i) demographics and Big Five personality dimensions on social media use motives; (ii) demographics and use motives on social media site preferences; and (iii) demographics, personality, popular social media sites, and social media use motives on PSMU. The sample comprised 1008 undergraduate students, aged between 17 and 32 years ( M = 20.49, SD = 1.73; 60.5% women). The participants completed a questionnaire comprising the Social Media Use Questionnaire, Social Media Usage Aims Scale, and Ten-Item Personality Inventory. Multiple linear and hierarchical regression analyses showed that social media use motives of (i) meeting new people and socializing, (ii) expressing or presenting a more popular self, and (iii) passing time and entertainment were associated with problematic social media use. Moreover, participants that preferred Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook reported higher scores of problematic social media use. Finally, being female, introverted, conscientious, agreeable, and neurotic were associated with PSMU. The findings offer empirical evidence for uses and gratifications theory because the findings demonstrated that (i) different personality traits predict different motives, (ii) different motives predict preference of different platforms, and (iii) different individual differences such as personality, preference of platform, and specific use motives predict PSMU.

Subfields: Communication, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/63c071af24a04ca862f1093d0c6a779cbd36a3c1

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Citations in the corpus

Neuroticism, Trait Fear of Missing Out, and Phubbing: The Mediating Role of State Fear of Missing Out and Problematic Instagram Use (2018, background): “Despite the growing body of Internet-use disorder literature (Kircaburun et al. 2018), very little is known about the risk factors and consequences of problematic Instagram use.”
Psychopathological Consequences Related to Problematic Instagram Use Among Adolescents: The Mediating Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction and Moderating Role of Gender (2019, methodology): “Although Instagram can provide different advantageous gratifications such as expressing oneself, passing time, and entertainment, various detrimental effects related to Instagram use have also been reported (Kircaburun et al. 2018a).”
The Psychology of Mukbang Watching: A Scoping Review of the Academic and Non-academic Literature (2020, background): “Using social media for entertainment has been positively associated with problematic social media use (Kircaburun et al. 2018), whichmay indicate that those who can entertain themselves via watching mukbang could become problematic mukbang viewers.”