Heliyon 6 (2020) e03184

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Heliyon
journal homepage: www.cell.com/heliyon

Research article

Facebook addiction and personality

Thipparapu Rajesh *, Dr B. Rangaiah
Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Puducherry, 605014, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study explored the associations between Facebook addiction and personality factors. A total of 114 partic-
Psychology ipants (age range of participants is 18–30 and males were 68.4% and females were 31.6 %) have participated
Loneliness through an online survey. The results showed that 14.91 % of the participants had reached the critical polythetic
Narcissism
cutoff score, and 1.75 % has reached the monothetic cutoff score. The personality traits, such as extraversion,
Facebook intensity
Big five personality traits
openness to experience, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and narcissism, are not related to Face-
Facebook addiction book addiction and Facebook intensity. Loneliness was positively related to Facebook addiction, and it signifi-
cantly predicted Facebook addiction by accounting to 14% of the variation in Facebook addiction. The limitations
and suggestions for further research have been discussed.

1. Introduction associated with social media use such as preoccupation about using social
media, withdrawal, excessive engagement, mood control and losing
Addiction is a state of constant engagement in a substance or behavior control over usage (Ryan et al., 2016). However, social media addiction
which rewards the user, despite its debilitating consequences (American is different in manifestation as it does not involve the usage of other
Psychiatric Association, 2013). Substance abuse or addictions involve internet applications (Griffiths et al., 2014).
intake of drugs or alcohol, while behavioral addictions are about Social media addiction is defined as "being overly concerned about
engaging in repetitive behavior. Nonetheless, researchers have social media, driven by an uncontrollable motivation to login to or use
acknowledged the significant similarities between chemical addictions social media, devoting so much time and effort in social media that it
and excessive behaviors which are non-chemical (Albrecht et al., 2007; impairs other important life areas" (Griffiths, 2005). Social media
Grant et al., 2010). Typically, various types of behavioral addictions addiction is an overarching term which clubs excessive use of all social
include gambling addiction, shopping addiction, food and sex addiction. media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, and
The rise of technology-mediated assistance in providing better YouTube.
communication services made our lives easier, but as a byproduct, Considering the idiosyncratic nature of different social media appli-
behavioral addictions like internet addiction and social media addiction cations and how they are influencing users, exhorts researchers to study
have become prevalent. Internet addiction is a problematic behavior and investigate them in an isolated manner. Facebook usage, given its
which is defined as an impulse control disorder without the ingestion of tremendous popularity, is worthy of studying separately. Facebook
psychoactive intoxicants. There are five different types of internet addiction is characterized by salience (preoccupation and cravings about
addiction. 1) Computer addiction is characterized by excessive video game usage), mood modification (desiring an experience to alter mood), toler-
playing, 2) information overload is addiction to web surfing, 3) net com- ance (increasing amounts of usage), withdrawal symptoms (experiencing
pulsions are addictions like online gambling and online shopping, 4) cyber unpleasant feelings in the absence of usage), conflict (prioritizing usage
sexual addiction is excessive indulgence in online pornography or online over other actions) and relapse (failing to stop usage) (Griffiths, 2005).
sex addiction, and 5) cyber-relationship addiction is addiction to form Among all social media applications, Facebook has gained the most
online relationships (Young, 1998). popularity and amassed the highest number of users in the world. At the
Internet addiction is a nested term for various addictive behaviours global level, there are over 2.27 billion monthly active users and 1.15
engaged on the internet platform. Accordingly, social media addiction billion daily active users. Currently, India has the world's most significant
may be considered as a subtype of internet addiction. It involves symp- number of Facebook users, with over 300 million users, and it is expected
toms similar to internet addiction that are negative consequences to reach 444.2 million users by 2023. Facebook visiting frequency is

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: [email protected] (T. Rajesh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03184
Received 27 April 2019; Received in revised form 19 October 2019; Accepted 6 January 2020
2405-8440/© 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
T. Rajesh, D.B. Rangaiah Heliyon 6 (2020) e03184

more than three times a day, and 76% of Facebook users are men and purposefully designed to hook the users. The underlying algorithms are
24% users are women (Statista, 2019). On an average Facebook user designed to influence the personal preferences and choices of the users
spends 60 min, log in 2–5 times daily (Balakrishnan and Shamim, 2013). through customized feedback loops. These algorithms capitalize on
13 % of the Norway university students (Andreassen et al., 2013), 9% of behavioural principles, i.e., intermittent reinforcement, which pursues
the German college students (Brailovskaia et al., 2018) are addicted to users efficiently to spend more time on facebook. Furthermore, this can
facebook. 41.8% of the Thai high school students (Khumsri et al., 2015), increase the probability of addictive facebook usage (Harris, 2016;
38% of university students in Jordan (Alzougool, 2018) and 47% Lanier, 2018).
Malaysian students found to be addicted to facebook (Jafarkarimi et al., The excessive use of Facebook creates conflict in the intrapersonal
2016). 39. 7 % of the Bangladesh students (Al Mamun and Griffiths, and interpersonal relationship, which may hamper the wellbeing of the
2019) and 33% of Indian students are at risk for facebook addiction user. The impact of Facebook use on wellbeing is contentious. For a short
(Shettar et al., 2017). term Facebook use seems to enhance wellbeing by increasing happiness
Facebook usage has grown exponentially in India. Teenagers and and life satisfaction (Kim and Lee, 2011; Liu and Yu, 2013) but on a
young adults are it’s prominent users. Indian Market Research Bureau longer-term Facebook, use is negatively related to mental health (Kross
(IMRB) reported that social media penetration in rural India is increasing et al., 2013) and diminished wellbeing (Satici and Uysal, 2015). Face-
and Facebook continues to be the most popular social media platform as book addiction is positively associated with depression (Błachnio et al.,
about 84% of the internet users in India use internet primarily to access 2015), anxiety symptoms (Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017) and lowered
social media sites like Facebook (Anita, 2015). Among Indian students, wellbeing (Satici and Uysal., 2015).
46% of the facebook addicted individuals found to have depressive Personality factors also play a role in Facebook usage and addiction.
symptoms (Elavarasan and Dhandapani, 2017), 26% of the facebook Previous studies explored the association between Big five personality
addicted felt lonely (Shettar et al., 2017), and 3% of facebook addicted factors. Extraverted individuals are outgoing and social; neurotic in-
experienced stress and anxiety (Meena et al., 2015). dividuals are prone to experience unpleasant emotions; conscientious
Young individuals, students, singles; people from low income and low individuals are self-disciplined and achievement-oriented. Agreeable
educational background are the at-risk populations for addictive social individuals are compassionate and cooperative. Individuals who are open
media use (Andreassen et al., 2017). The propensity to develop Facebook to experience, appreciate and curious to have a variety of experiences
addiction is contingent upon active use frequency, use duration, usage (McCrae and Costa, 1999). Extraverted individuals may get gratification
comprehensiveness and access to heterogeneous devices (Turel, 2015). in maintaining their social circles and having a high number of friends on
With the advent of smartphones (Andreassen and Pallesen, 2014) and Facebook. Neurotic individuals may use Facebook to alter their mood
the availability of internet facility, social media usage has increased. whenever they go through unpleasant moods. Extraversion, conscien-
Excessive use of social networking sites may be problematic (Kuss and tiousness, openness to experience, agreeableness, and neuroticism are
Griffiths, 2011), as it may develop into Facebook addiction (Brailovskaia related to Facebook use, which depends upon how particular facebook
et al., 2018). The increasing engagement in Facebook by large sections of feature is appealing to the particular personality trait (Mahmood and
people created the impetus to scrutinize the precedents and antecedents Farooq, 2014; Marshall et al., 2015; Sharma and Isha, 2015; Wang et al.,
of its usage. 2012; Yesil, 2014).
Uses and gratifications theory (Sarnoff and Katz, 1954) propounds Factors which are associated with Facebook use were found to be
that scrutiny into users motives will enhance understanding of the me- associated with Facebook addiction also. Extraversion, neuroticism, low
dium. Motivation is a process which guides goal-oriented behaviors. An conscientiousness is related to Facebook addiction (Caers et al., 2013;
array of motivations initiates the use of Facebook, such as maintaining Hwang, 2017; Wang et al., 2015). Conscientiousness, extraversion,
personal connections, relationship maintenance with family and friends, neuroticism, and loneliness strongly predicted Facebook addiction
passing time, entertainment, and building companionship (Ryan et al., (Biolcati et al., 2018). Personality mediated through perceived social
2014). The primary motivation appears to be constructing a self-identity support related to Facebook addiction (Zafar et al., 2018).
in the realm of facebook. Self-presentation is an attempt to present Personality traits, which are not under the purview of the five-factor
oneself in a pertinent way to invoke the desired impression, which in- model, such as narcissism and loneliness, drive facebook usage (Ross
fluences our outcomes in life (Hogan and Briggs, 1986). Facebook fea- et al., 2009). Narcissism is an excessive preoccupation with oneself and
tures facilitate individuals to present themselves in myriad ways. The lack of empathy or disregard for others emotions. Facebook features
need to present one's self pleasingly to impress others and to boost make it possible to promote oneself, presenting oneself in a better light
self-esteem through the likes of others perpetuates Facebook use (Burrow and creating a positive or even idealistic lifestyle (Błachnio et al., 2013).
and Rainone, 2017). Promoting activities that are, are self-enhancing High levels of narcissism and low level of self-esteem predicted Facebook
satisfies the need for popularity which in turn drives Facebook usage use. Narcissistic individuals tend to self-objectify and spent more time on
(Caers et al., 2013). Facebook in editing their photos (Fox and Moreland, 2015). High levels
The self operates in a social network in its relational form, so people of narcissism and loneliness are associated with Facebook users than
inadvertently compare their abilities and attitudes with others which play nonusers (Ryan and Xenos, 2011). Visual forms of facebook use, i.e.
a role in forming self-image (Festinger, 1954). Facebook is a platform posting photos and images, mediated the relation between problematic
where its users present their personal information and activities which internet use and narcissism (Reed et al., 2018).
necessitates comparison. Regularly checking Facebook allures users into Loneliness is an involuntary state of social isolation or the feeling of
comparing their lives with others, this resultantly, invokes insecurity and being alone (Russell, 2009). Lonely individuals tend to use online social
fear of missing out what others are experiencing, which are positively communication as a means of escaping from negative mood states
related to Facebook addiction (Muench et al., 2015; Pontes et al., 2018). (Caplan, 2003). Loneliness is positively associated with Facebook usage.
Low level of self-regulation, maladaptive cognitions about perceived Shyness and low social support induced loneliness increased Facebook
identities in Facebook combined with a preference for online social use, which typically mitigates mood change (Song et al., 2014).
interaction is related to Facebook addiction (Hughes et al., 2012; Pontes Cultural differences account for facebook usage. Abbas and Mesch
et al., 2018). (2015) found a positive association between collectivism and the desire
Despite Facebook use negatively affecting users mood, the anticipated to use facebook. In collectivistic cultures, individuals invest a higher
bolstering of one's mood by using Facebook, affective forecasting, amount of time in caring about family, friends and community. These
seemed to cause Facebook addiction (Sagioglou and Greitemeyer, 2014). social motives are gratified when they engage in facebook. So, members
The expectation for mood elations might be due to the nature of of collectivistic cultures perceive facebook as a facilitating medium to
facebook structural features underpinned by algorithms which are maintain existing relationships and to expand other social ties (Jackson

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T. Rajesh, D.B. Rangaiah Heliyon 6 (2020) e03184

and Wang, 2013). When individuals construe their self as interdepen- individual trait for the current sample are .61, .60, .62, .67, and .60 for
dent, not independent, they tend to focus on improving social relation- the extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability
ships. These individuals get gratification from using facebook to and openness to experience respectively. The total Cronbach's α for
strengthen their relations (Kim et al., 2010). Current sample is .62. The 10 item personality inventory was devised as a
However, considering the breadth of social media usage, robust brief measure of the big five dimensions of personality. Brief measures
studies are lacking to explain the facebook phenomenon. The literature eliminate item redundancy, reducing participant boredom and the frus-
on Facebook addiction in the Indian context is also scant. Diagnostic and tration about “answering the same question again and again.” So it can be
Statistical Manual of mental disorders is waiting for adequate empirical used as a proxy for the longer big-five instruments. A short measure
evidence to categorize and to include facebook addiction in the should not aim at maximizing Cronbach alpha, because each set of items
nomenclature (Brailovskaia and Margraf, 2017). of a personality trait needs to capture the breadth of the concept (Gosling
The main aim of this study is to investigate Facebook addiction and et al., 2003).
Facebook intensity and its associations with big five personality traits,
loneliness and narcissism. Considering the previous research about the 2.2.2. Narcissistic personality inventory
association between Facebook use and big five traits (Wang et al., 2015), Narcissistic personality inventory (NPI) – 40 was used to assess
it was assumed that the big five personality traits are positively related to narcissism, which has an acceptable face, internal, discriminant and
Facebook addiction (Hypothesis 1). Highly narcissistic individuals spent predictive validity (Raskin and Terry (1988). Items like "Modesty does
more time on Facebook (Fox and Moreland, 2015), so it was expected not become me" and "I am essentially a modest person". Higher scores
that narcissism is positively related to Facebook addiction (Hypothesis indicate a more narcissistic personality. Cronbach's α for Current sample
2). Loneliness was associated with Facebook usage (Song et al., 2014; is .79.
Shettar et al., 2017); it was assumed that loneliness is positively related
to Facebook addiction (Hypothesis 3). 2.2.3. UCLA loneliness scale
UCLA loneliness scale developed by Russell et al. (1978) is a 20 item
2. Materials and methods scale (O indicates "I often feel this way", S indicates "I sometimes feel this
way", R indicates "I rarely feel this way", N indicates "I never feel this
2.1. Procedure and participants way") which measures one's subjective feelings of loneliness as well as
feelings of social isolation. The reliability of the scale is α ¼ 73. Cron-
Data were obtained through the online survey mode by creating bach's α for Current sample is .92.
Google forms; the links were circulated in social media applications such
as Facebook and WhatsApp. A Google form was attached with a consent 2.2.4. Bergen Facebook addiction scale
form which explained the purpose of the study and the confidentiality Bergen facebook addiction scale was used to assess the Facebook
and anonymity of the participant's personal information. The age range addiction level. It contains 6 items (e.g., "using Facebook in order to
of participants is 18–30 and males were 68.4%, and females were 31.6%. forget about personal problems") according to the six core addiction
Students comprised 63.2%, among them, undergraduates are 35.2%, features (i.e., salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, with-
postgraduates are 45.6%, PhDs are 19.2%, and employees are 36.8%. drawal, and conflict) rated on a 5-point Likert scale (1 ¼ very rarely, 5 ¼
Daily, 83.9% of the participants used Facebook for 2 h, 11.3% used for very often). Higher values indicate higher levels of Facebook addiction.
3–4 h, 3.2% used for 5–6 h, .8% used for 7–8 h and .8% used for more The reliability of the scale is α ¼ 0.86. Cronbach's α for Current sample is
than 9 h. The data was collected from 2018 February to 2018 June. The .84. A monothetic scoring with a rating of 3 or above for all items and
participation was voluntary and active use of facebook was the require- polythetic approach with a rating of 3 or above on at least four of the six
ment. The Institute Ethics Committee (Human Studies) of Pondicherry items was used to indicate Facebook addiction (Andreassen et al., 2012).
University has reviewed the study procedure, research tools and
approved it. 2.2.5. Facebook intensity scale
Before using the tools, a pilot study was conducted to check the Facebook intensity scale (Ellison et al., 2007) was used to find out the
feasibility of collecting a sample and reliability of the scales. During the intensity of Facebook usage and degree of emotional involvement in
pilot study, total of 50 respondents were administered the tools; based on facebook. This scale consists of 8 items, two of them measuring the
the pilot study results, tools were found to be reliable with adequate number of Facebook friends and the amount of time spent on Facebook
Cronbach values. Among the pilot study sample, females comprised of on a typical day and the remaining six items (e.g., I would be sorry if
32% and males were 68%. 52% of the students were pursuing under facebook is shutdown) uses a Likert scale (1 ¼ strongly disagree to 5 ¼
graduation, 32% were pursuing post-graduation and 16% were doctoral strongly agree). Cronbach's α for Current sample is .88.
students. The age range of the participants was 18–30, 66% of them
being18 to 24 and 34% being 25 to 30. 2.2.6. Statistical analysis
Descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation, was used
2.2. Measures to analyze the association between variables. Simple regression was used
to analyze the predictive power of the variables.
2.2.1. Ten item personality inventory
A short ten-item personality measures big five personality traits, 3. Results
namely extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and
openness to experience. It consists of 10 items which are rated on a 7- Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviations of Bergen Facebook
point likert scale with a degree of agreement on each statement, addiction scale items. According to the polythetic scoring (rating of 3 or
ranging from 1 ¼ disagree strongly to 7 ¼ agree strongly. The 10-item above on at least four of the six items of BFAS scale), 17 (14.91) and
personality inventory has been standardized with adequate levels of monothetic scoring (rating of 3 or above for all items) 2 (1.75) partici-
validity, reliability and external correlates. However, reliability was pants reached the critical cutoff score. Item 4 (relapse) and item 3 (mood
checked for this sample. The Cronbach alphas for each individual trait modification) have gained the highest values (See Table 1).
are .77, .71, .76, .70, and .62 for the extraversion, agreeableness, Table 3 shows Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients
conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience which were used to analyze hypotheses. The big five traits extraversion (r
respectively (Gosling et al., 2003). The cronbach alphas of each ¼ .12), agreeableness (r ¼ .11), conscientiousness (r ¼ .13),

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alternative. Extraversion is associated with more number of friends and

Table 1. Means and standard deviations of the study variables. use Facebook to communicate about their social activities. Openness to
Variables M SD N experience is associated with a greater tendency to be sociable through
Extraversion 4.27 1.55 114 Facebook (Ross et al., 2009). High Conscientious individuals may avoid
Agreeableness 4.92 1.23 114
social media because it may distract and interfere in doing their duties
Conscientiousness 4.83 1.4 114
(Hughes et al., 2012). Agreeability was associated with having more
number of friends on facebook (Wang et al., 2012). Neurotic individuals
Neuroticism 4.59 1.52 114
use photos and share more personally-identifying information to satisfy
Openness to 5.41 1.26 114
their need for self-assurance and self-validation (Ross et al., 2009). Thus
experience
big five personality factors are related to the usage of particular facebook
Loneliness 19.73 12.34 114
features, and this usage need not necessarily develop into an addiction.
Narcissism 16.27 5.96 114
Jackson and Wang (2013) found that users from collectivistic cultures
Facebook addiction 10.65 4.022 114
use social networks less often than people from individualistic cultures.
Face book intensity 67.16 15.39 114
Individuals from collectivistic cultures tend to adhere to traditional cul-
tural values such as caring about family and friends. These cultural values
shape facebook use. Thus, for these individuals, Facebook is a tool to
maintain existing relationships and expand social ties but not at the cost
Table 2. Means and standard deviations of Bergen Facebook addiction scale
of real-world social relationships. These cultural values may buffer
items.
against excessive behaviours like facebook addiction. In collectivistic
M (SD) Polythetic scoring Monothetic scoring cultures, parents influence and monitor their children's activities. This
BFAS 10.87 (4.52) 17 (14.91) 2 (1.75) safeguarding possibly can weed out excessive and addictive use of
BFAS: Item 1 (salience) 1.58 (0.83) facebook.
BFAS: Item 2 (tolerance) 1.83 (0.93) Individuals from collectivistic cultures are less likely to have multiple
BFAS: item 3 (Mood modification) 1.96 (1.09) internet-connected devices. Less connectivity acts as a protective factor,
BFAS: item 4(relapse) 2.05 (1.04) as Turel (2015) indicated that access to heterogeneous devices is asso-
BFAS: item 5 (withdrawal) 1.71 (1.03) ciated with facebook addiction.
BFAS: item 6 (conflict) 1.75 (1.08) Cultural factors such as power distance (individuals place in a given
social hierarchy) predict motivation for using Facebook. Power distance
neuroticism (r ¼ .04), openness to experience (r ¼ .14) and narcissism in India is high, which indicates the high inequality of power and wealth.
(r ¼ .04) was found to be not related to face book addiction and face A large proportion of the population is deprived of socio-economic re-
book intensity. Loneliness and Face book addiction are significantly sources. This depravity limits access to technology, which suggests the
related r ¼ .38, p < .01. improbability that individuals from these circumstances may not engage
Table 4 shows the simple regression coefficients. Loneliness signifi- in intensive and addictive facebook usage.
cantly predicted Face book addiction, β ¼ .38, t (110) ¼ 4.37, p < .001. Jackson and Wang (2013) also indicated that personal characteristics,
Loneliness also explained a significant proportion of variance in face such as the big five personality factors, exhibit the better predictive value
book addiction, R2 ¼ .14, F (1, 110) ¼ 19.1, p < .001. of facebook use in individualistic cultures than they are for collectivistic
cultures (Abbas and Mesch, 2015; Jackson and Wang, 2013).
4. Discussion This study found no association between Narcissism and facebook
addiction. Narcissism is related to self-expression through posting self-
This study aimed to investigate the association between personality focused pictures, update statuses about achievements for self-validation
factors and facebook addiction among young students in southern India. (Marshall et al., 2015). Narcissism is not always related to Facebook
Results showed that big five personality traits were not related to Face-
book addiction and facebook intensity. This result is in contradiction
with other studies which found the associations with Facebook addiction
Table 4. Summary of linear regression analysis for loneliness.
such as Extraversion, neuroticism, low conscientiousness (Caers et al.,
2013; Hwang, 2017; Wang et al., 2015). Extraverted individuals may Variable B SE B β t p
consider Facebook as an online space for conducting social activities Loneliness .12 .02 .38 4.37 .00
which is an extension to offline social activities rather than an
R2 ¼ 14.

Table 3. Summary of correlation between variables.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Extraversion
2. Agreeableness .04
3. Conscientiousness .27** .18*
4. Neuroticism .24** .23* .39**
5. Openness to .12 .18 .19* .20*
experience
6. Loneliness .11 .07 .04 .12 .02
7. Face book intensity .01 .03 .15 .16 .18 .06
8. Facebook addiction .12 .11 .13 .04 .14 .38** .01
9. Narcissism .11 .03 .00 .06 .09 .00 .04 .06

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

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T. Rajesh, D.B. Rangaiah Heliyon 6 (2020) e03184

addiction (Błachnio et al., 2016) and is not a strong predictor of the Competing interest statement
amount of time spent on the social networking sites (Bergman et al.,
2011). The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Loneliness was found to be associated with Facebook addiction. Even
in collectivistic cultures, high expectations about reciprocations in social
relationships and lack of sufficient skills for fostering social ties may set Additional information
individuals at risk for loneliness (Jylha and Jokela, 1990). For lonely
individuals using Facebook may compensate for lacking social skills and No additional information is available for this paper.
interactions in face to face offline social settings (Song et al., 2014;
Shettar et al., 2017). High levels of loneliness are associated with Face- References
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Funding statement Darusalam, Ghazali, April 2008. Kesahan dan Kebolehpercayaan Dalam Kajian Kuantitatif
dan Kualitatif. Jurnal Institut Perguruan Islam.
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