The motivations and personality traits that influence Facebook usage

Abstract

This chapter investigates the motivations and personality traits that influence people’s Facebook usage. An online survey found that ‘keeping in contact with existing friends’ was the most commonly cited motive for using Facebook. How - ever, boredom was not rated significantly differently from this social connectivity motive. It was found that different demographic groups use Facebook for different purposes: social connectivity (females) and boredom (males) both motivated the younger users more than the older ones. In an investigation of personality traits, those with high levels of conscientiousness trait were found to have a lower number of friends on their Facebook profiles; but overall, personality factors were not found to be as influential on Facebook usage as previous literature has suggested.