Psychological Predictors for SNS use

For this academic analysis I found an article that looks at the relationship between young adults personality traits and then tries to use these findings to find any connections between social networking usage and their self-esteem. The researchers also use their findings to distinguish which personality traits may lead to addictive tendencies toward SNS usage. The researchers used a five-factor model of personality that consists of the following: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism (Wilson, Fornasier, White). The findings in this study showed links between people having addictive tendencies for SNS use with those who display extroversion as a means of satisfying their need for interaction (Wilson, Fornasier, White). Self-esteem showed little relation with SNS use in this study which is surprising considering that SNS can be used as a form of confirming social status and receiving positive or negative feedback to increase or decrease one's self-esteem. As far as the other four personality factors, there was no real relationship found between them and SNS usage and self-esteem levels. Openness to experience and agreeableness showed no relation with SNS use which as the report stated, may be the result of social networking sites being commonplace and not as new now for people who are open and are looking for new SNS's. These findings are not similar with other studies done using the five-factor model and internet usage, but this may just be because people in the previous studies were not using internet mainly for the use of SNS, as we learned that they account for 22% of online time.

Although these researchers were not able to find any concrete, definitive evidence for personality traits and self-esteem that could indicate addictive SNS usage; their findings can still be grouped with other studies to create a much broader scope in predicting and preventing psychological dependencies on social networking sites. If there is anything to be taken away from this study, it is that there are some signs of connections between certain personalities and SNS usage, and perhaps in the future if people see psychologists and their familiar with some of these studies, then people who become addicted and obsessed with SNS's could be prevented from becoming people like facebook stalkers and killers. For people who display extroversion, it may be necessary for them to limit their usage of SNS's and rely more on physical face-to-face interaction as those seemed to be the most influenced and show addictive tendencies of SNS usage.

Works Cited

Kathryn Wilson, Stephanie Fornasier, and Katherine M. White. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. April 2010, 13(2): 173-177. doi:10.1089/cyber.2009.0094. http://www.liebertonline.com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2009.0094

Comm 240. Notes taken on 10 November 2011. Lecturer Dr. Jesse Fox.

Picture link: http://marketingconversation.com/2010/12/10/your-buyer%E2%80%99s-personas/