Personality Traits and Narcissism in Social Media Predict Social Media Addiction

Abstract

While social media has many facilitating effects and benefits in human life, it can also lead to negative consequences, such as social media addiction. The present study investigates the predictive role of personality traits and narcissism in social media on social media addiction. A total of 705 people aged 18 to 61 participated in the study, including 483 women and 222 men. Big Five Inventory, Scale of Narcissism in Social Media, and Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale were used to collect data for this cross-sectional study. Correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis were performed to examine the relationships between the study variables. According to the results, higher extraversion and neuroticism lead to greater social media addiction levels, while increased levels of agreeableness lead to decreased social media addiction levels. Narcissistic admiration and narcissistic rivalry, on the other hand, significantly predicted social media addiction when sociodemographic variables and personality traits were controlled. According to the results, narcissism in social media seems to play an important role in social media addiction. The findings were discussed within the framework of the literature and various suggestions were made.