Browsing by Author "Ritvanen, Noora"

The goal of my thesis was to find out how personality affects the way people use social media and how social media profile information expresses people’s personality. I limited the studies involved to those in which personality was measured with same or similar inventories that are based on Big Five theory. The studies used were searched from Google Scholar and ScienceDirect databases with search statements ”Big Five” AND ”Social media”, Personality AND ”Social media” and Personality AND ”Social media use”. Extroverted people used social media for socializing and communication which was expressed through profiles for example as many connections to other people. Neurotic people used social media for communication and attention seeking. Neurotic people do not want to tell about their neuroticism to other people which might explain why neuroticism did not always have an association with behaviour in social media and why it was not expressed through profile information. People who are open to new experiences used social media for private communication. In profiles communication was expressed through broad networks. Openness to new experiences had incoherent association with using social media for gathering information. People who are high in conscientiousness used social media to support their social relations and for private communication. People who are high in conscientiousness do not want other people to see that they use social media because it is pointless which might explain why conscientiousness was not usually expressed through profile information. People who are high in agreeableness used social media for communication. Agreeableness is not associated with behaviour which can be seen in social media which might be the reason why agreeableness was not seen from profile information. Personality traits are expressed in social media profiles and behaviours in different ways which Big Five theory credibly explains.