The present study examined the link between neuroticism, extraversion, as well as presentation of the real, the ideal, and the false self on Facebook. Self-reports were collected from 261 young adults (ages 18–30) about personality, online self-presentation, and Facebook use. Level of extraversion was positively associated with Facebook activity level. A series of regression analyses revealed that young adults high in neuroticism reported presenting their ideal and false self on Facebook to a greater extent whereas those low in extraversion reported engaging in greater online self-exploratory behaviors. Findings suggest that young adults who are experiencing emotional instability may be strategic in their online self-presentation perhaps to seek reassurance, and those who have self-doubt further explore their self online.
In recent years, social networking site (SNS) use has soared among 18–29 year olds [2005: 9% vs. 2012: 83%] (Brenner, 2013). Facebook, the world’s most popular SNS, has over 1.11 billion users worldwide (Smith, 2013), accounting for almost 16% of the world’s population (United States Census Bureau, 2013). Of these Facebook users, 38% are between the ages of 18–29 (Facebook, 2013). Facebook has evolved over the years (Rahman, 2012), offering members more ways to connect with their family and friends (Subrahmanyam, Reich, Waechter, & Espinoza, 2008), and present information about themselves (Strano, 2008) and their whereabouts online (Manago, Taylor, & Greenfield, 2012). Self-presentation features prominently in young people’s use of SNSs (DeAndrea and Walther, 2011, Manago et al., 2008 and Zhao et al., 2008), such as via profile pictures, status updates, and uploading of images and videos. Recent research suggests that youth present different aspects of their self online such as their real self, ideal self, and their false self (Michikyan, Dennis, & Subrahmanyam, submitted for publication), and it is important to examine how individual factors relate to different kinds of online self-presentation.
Research on youth social media use suggests that factors such as psychosocial well-being, self-efficacy, and personality are associated with online self-presentation (Coyne et al., 2013, Gonzales and Hancock, 2011, Michikyan and Subrahmanyam, 2012, Subrahmanyam and Šmahel, 2011, Wilson et al., 2010 and Wilson et al., 2012). With regard to the role of personality in online self-presentation, however, research to date has only examined the relation between young people’s personality characteristics and the frequency of their SNS use (e.g., Ong et al., 2011 and Ross et al., 2009), and suggests that neuroticism and extraversion may be central to social media use (Amichai-Hamburger and Vinitzky, 2010, Ross et al., 2009 and Zywica and Danowski, 2008). Little is known however about the extent to which these personality characteristics may be related to different kinds of online self-presentation. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the relation between neuroticism, extraversion, and presentation of the real self, the ideal self, and the false self on Facebook
