The Relationship between Personality Traits and Active versus Inactive Facebook Usage among Female University Students in Egypt

This study examined the effect of the Big Five traits (Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness), in addition to two narrow personality traits (narcissism and self-esteem) on active versus inactive Facebook usage. The study also investigated the effect of attitudes towards Facebook, motivations of Facebook use (Social/ informational) and educational variables (School year and education type in high school). A survey was conducted on 326 female university students from the School of Mass Communication in Cairo University.
The results of the study shed light on the difference between factors affecting each type of Facebook use. Regarding the inactive Facebook use, none of the personality traits affected it. The only effective variables were attitudes towards Facebook and the education year. As inactive use was measured only by hours spent on Facebook, it was logical that as the positive attitudes increased, the time spent on Facebook increased whatever personal traits the user had.
There was also a positive correlation between school year and time spent on Facebook. This result could be interpreted in light of the nature of the Egyptian educational system and the differences in the life style of students in their first semester in the School of Mass Communication as they were used to spending a lot of time studying in High school and the life style of students after spending a few years in the school as the media, including social networking sites, became an important part of their life either to socialize with colleagues or as a part of their study.
Regarding the active Facebook use, it was affected by four variables; two personality traits which were narcissism and extraversion, in addition to informational use motivations and education year. There was a positive correlation between the level of narcissism and the active use of Facebook, especially that the measure includes updating status, uploading photos and writing comments. This came in line with the desire of narcissists to be in the spotlight (Buffardi and Campbell, 2008; Ong et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2014).
Also the positive correlation between extraversion and active use of Facebook was due to the willingness of extroverts to organize and participate in events and groups, in addition to posting self-presentational information and involving in self- presentational behaviors on the site (Ross et al., 2009; Ljepava et al., 2013).
The positive correlation between informational use motivations and active Facebook use is due to the need of the university students, especially in the school of Mass Communication for that site to get more information about their studies as each course has pages or groups on Facebook. They use Facebook also to get information about current events and activities.
Regarding the education year variable, it can be interpreted in light of the fact that students in the senior year of school used Facebook more actively than First year students as a tool of collaboration in group work in their graduation projects and assignments.