ArticleFrontiers in psychology2021
Personality and Motives for Social Media Use When Physically Distanced: A Uses and Gratifications Approach.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Social Internet Use by People With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review and Thematic Synthesis of Qualitative Studies.Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR · 2025Pooled it
- Unpacking the Social Media Happiness Paradox: How Social Media Stressors Undermine Subjective Well-Being Through Social Media Fatigue.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Modifiable Factors Underlying Caregivers' Psychological Support Needs in Pediatric Disability: Through the Lens of Psycho-Behavioral and Social-Environmental Interactions.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Changes in Internet Activities and Influencing Factors for Problematic Internet Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Korean Adolescents: Repeated Cross-Sectional Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2025Article
- The internet usage increases fear of infection with Covid-19.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Exploring the Emotional Pathway from Motivation to Facebook* Addiction in a Vietnamese Undergraduate Sample.Psychology in Russia : state of the art · 2024Article
- The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on nostalgic social media use.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Article
- How providing public COVID-19 mitigation instructions in a foreign language can increase people's sense of control.PloS one · 2022Article
- Passion for an activity and its role on affect: Does personality and the type of activity matter?Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
This paper explores individuals' motives for using social media when living under 'social distancing' conditions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, where they were instructed to physically distance from other people. Adopting a 'uses and gratifications' approach, and using a previously established five-factor scale, we examine the relationship between individuals' motives for using social media and their personality traits. Hundred and eighty-nine social media users living in the United Kingdom completed surveys assessing their motives for using social media and their personality. Our findings demonstrate that participants were generally motivated to use social media to 'pass time' and to 'maintain relationships.' Further, we find that those high in extraversion in particular use social media to 'maintain relationships.' By comparing our findings to previous studies where face-to-face interaction was not restricted, our findings indicate that individuals' motives for using social media change when they are placed under physical distancing restrictions. We reflect on the potential application of our findings for others experiencing similar conditions, such as those working in remote locations, as well as the potential implications for living in a post-pandemic world with increased virtual 'meetings' using social media.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.