A recent study focused on the personality traits that contribute the most to social networks addiction. The stressed ones, the empathic people, as well as those who are able to control themselves better, can be affected equally by the addiction to social networks.
According to the study, which has been conducted on 300 students, three criteria would be decisive for developing this type of addiction:
- Neuroticism which corresponds to the experience of negative emotions (anger, stress, anxiety, depression, and so on);
- The consciousness degree associated with the ability to control yourself and to achieve your goals;
- The friendliness expressed in the form of empathy, sympathy, and helpfulness;
Anxious people are more prone to become addicted to social networks
Unsurprisingly, anxious or emotionally challenged subjects are more likely to become addicted to social networks and only a high level of self-awareness and self-control allows them to escape social networks addiction.
However, the study shows surprisingly that these two specificities combined define the profiles of the people who are at high risk of becoming addicted.
Good emotions management and a high degree of consciousness can be diminished by stress. Thus, stressed or troubled people can lose the self-control they develop regarding the use of social networks, according to the study’s authors.
People with a good self-control can also become addicted to social networks
Unlike an addiction to alcohol or tobacco, the study shows that the social networks addiction is not necessarily unreasoned and harmful because empathic people with a good self-control and management over their emotions can also have a strong attraction for social networks, according to the researchers who describe this cases as “reasonable addictions”.
These profiles would more intentionally use a social network “to maximize the perceived benefits,” according to the study. In other words, a nice and friendly person can consciously choose to use more the social networks for the deliberate purpose of building more social relationships.
