The relationship between the characteristics of social media usage and personality structures, life satisfaction and depression

Objective: The purpose of this research was to analyze the relationship of the social media usage characteristics on personality structures, narcissism, life satisfaction and depression. Methods: The sample included a total of 428 participants with 281 women and 147 men, who volunteered to participate using Surveey online survey system. In our research, Socio-demographic Characteristics and Data Form, The Short-Form Five Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI), The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were applied. In data analysis, frequency distribution, in normal distributions Shapiro-Wilk Mann Whitney-U, Kruskal Wallis and Spearman's rho correlation test were used. Results: The results of the analysis showed that social media was more common among women and individuals under 30 years of age. The majority of the participants used Facebook (98,6%) and spent 1-3 hours a day with social media tools (45,1%) and shared a maximum of 0-10 posts daily (93%). The majority of (48,4%) had 100-500 friends or followers. A significant and negative relationship was observed between age and social media usage. Depression had a significant and positive relationship whereas the conscientiousness dimension of FFPI had a significant and negative relationship with social media usage. Conclusion: In the light of these findings, we can suggest that as depression levels increase, the usage of social media increases as well. As conscientiousness increases in individuals, the usage of social media is reduced. Key words: social media, narcissism, personality, life satisfaction, depression