BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION AMONG YOUNG ADULTS

Abstract

Social media use among young adults has become an important aspect of their daily life. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the Big Five Personality Traits (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) and social media addiction among young adults. The study employed a quantitative cross-sectional survey design, and 300 respondents aged between 18 and 25 years were selected from the community, online platform, and campus. Data was collected online using the Big Five Inventory (BFI-44) and Social Media Addiction Scale (SMA-S). The findings indicated that Neuroticism had the highest positive correlation with social media addiction (β = .38, p< .001), followed by Extraversion (β = .26, p< .001). Conscientiousness was an important negative predictor (β = −.21, p < .01), lending support to its role in preventing compulsive usage. For agreeableness and Openness to experience, there was no significant prediction of social media addiction. The regression model explained 32% of the variance in the social media addiction scores (R² = .32). The findings highlight the importance of personality in the digital lives of young adults and the need to develop personality-based interventions to help reduce social media addiction and promote digital well-being.