Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Relationships Among Social and Nonsocial Use of Instagram, Social Anxiety, Neuroticism and Extraversion

Publication Date

2023

College

Sciences and Mathematics, College of

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

BURS Faculty Advisor

Patrick Morse

Presentation Type

Oral Presentation

Abstract

Social media use has become one of the main forms of online connection in the digital age and proves to be a staple of social relations especially for adolescents and young adults. With the relatively recent emergence of social media popularity, there is room for exploration when it comes to the effects of different social media habits. Based on previous literature and studies, there has been a significant link found between social anxiety and neuroticism and the overuse of social media (Sindermann, 2020). A 2012 study added to the topic by identifying the distinction between “social” and “non-social” social media use (Fernandez, 2012). Through looking at what people are doing during their social media time on Instagram, we studied relationships between non-social and social Instagram use and social anxiety, neuroticism and extraversion. Our study was administered to 40 college students enrolled in Belmont University’s Introduction to Psychology course. We obtained our data from a Qualtrics survey that included the Big Five Inventory (BFI), Social Anxiety Scale – Social Media Usage (SAS-SMU), Instagram motives questionnaire, demographic questionnaire and consent and debriefing forms. Our first hypothesis is Non-social Instagram use is positively correlated with social anxiety, neuroticism and negatively correlated with extraversion. Our second hypothesis is social Instagram use is positively correlated with extraversion and negatively correlated with social anxiety and neuroticism. We found that our data supported both hypothesis 1 as well as hypothesis 2. With this data we hope to provide awareness towards individuals whose personalities might increase their risk of unhealthy social media use.

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