Investigating the relationship between personality traits and motivations to use social media among university students in Pakistan

Sadia Safir Tarar 1 2 * , Fawad Baig 1
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1 Faculty of Media & Mass Communication, University of Central Punjab, Lahore, PAKISTAN
2 Department of Media Studies, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore, PAKISTAN
* Corresponding Author
Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, Volume 14, Issue 2, Article No: e202428. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/14477
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ABSTRACT

The research endeavors to investigate the relationship between big five personality traits and the motivations to use social media in a Pakistani context. The big five personality traits (agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, conscientiousness, and neuroticism) provide a broad framework for understanding and describing personality and its impact on individuals. The survey was conducted among 910 respondents from the major cities of Pakistan. The respondents were students aged from 18 to 35 years, active social media users. There were positive correlations between personality traits and motivations to use social media. Agreeableness was a significant predictor of motivations to use social media. All personality traits depict a moderate to strong relationship with information seeking. Neuroticism tends to have a low to moderate correlation with motivations to use social media. Gender differences were sought among the personality traits, and neuroticism was a predictor of gender difference. The study’s findings suggest that personality traits significantly influence the utilization and involvement in social media.
Keywords: social media, personality, extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness

CITATION

Tarar, S. S., & Baig, F. (2024). Investigating the relationship between personality traits and motivations to use social media among university students in Pakistan. Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies, 14(2), e202428. https://doi.org/10.30935/ojcmt/14477

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