Addicted to Facebook: Examining the roles of personality characteristics, gratifications sought and Facebook exposure among youths

Abstract

This study draws upon the Uses and Gratifications
(U&G) theory and past studies on Facebook to deduce factors
(i.e: personality characteristics and gratifications sought) that
contribute to Facebook addiction amongst university students.
Results of factor analysis reveal four dimensions of gratifications
(i.e: content, process, social and technology) and introduce selfpresentation
as the fifth dimension for gratifications sought.
Meanwhile, personality characteristics are also factor analyzed
and the results show five traits (i.e: shyness, loneliness, powerful
others control, internal control and externakohi_87 control) of
Facebook users. Using a survey data collected from 400
undergraduate students of one of the public universities in
Malaysia, this study tests direct relationships between these
factors and Facebook addiction, and the effect of Facebook usage
as a mediator to the relationships. The results show insignificant
effect of the mediator. This study discovers, on the other hand,
significant direct relationships between the factors (except for
internal control) and Facebook addiction. Most importantly, the
study finds that three dimensions of gratifications sought (i.e:
content, self-presentation and social) and two of the personality
characteristics (i.e: shyness and loneliness) are significant
predictors to Facebook addiction among youths.