Instagram addiction and the Big Five of personality: The mediating role of self-liking

Abstract

Background and aims

Recent research has suggested that social networking site use can be addictive. Although extensive research has been carried out on potential addiction to social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tinder, only one very small study has previously examined potential addiction to Instagram. Consequently, the objectives of this study were to examine the relationships between personality, self-liking, daily Internet use, and Instagram addiction, as well as exploring the mediating role of self-liking between personality and Instagram addiction using path analysis.

Methods

A total of 752 university students completed a self-report survey, including the Instagram Addiction Scale (IAS), the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and the Self-Liking Scale.

Results

Results indicated that agreeableness, conscientiousness, and self-liking were negatively associated with Instagram addiction, whereas daily Internet use was positively associated with Instagram addiction. The results also showed that self-liking partially mediated the relationship of Instagram addiction with agreeableness and fully mediated the relationship between Instagram addiction with conscientiousness.

Discussion and conclusions

This study contributes to the small body of literature that has examined the relationship between personality and social networking site addiction and is one of only two studies to examine the addictive use of Instagram and the underlying factors related to it.