The Role of Personality and Motivational Factors in Use of Facebook

Nowadays, Facebook has been known as one of the most common Social Networking Site and several factors including the personality and individual motivations can be effective in the way and rate of using this social networking site by users. This study aimed to investigate the role of user's personality and motivational factors for using Facebook. Participants were 540 members of the Facebook users who selected by the method of voluntarily sampling. All of them completed the electronic forms of NEO-Five Factor Inventory questionnaire and the Semnan Questionnaire of Motivation Measuring and Facebook Users Performance. Data were analyzed by Canonical Correlation Method. Results showed that the higher levels of Neuroticism and low levels of conscientiousness are used more than interchangeable / group functions and communicational functions. The higher levels of Neuroticism and low levels of agreeableness were related to the higher levels of motivation of Escape from reality and habit. The higher levels of self-expression, communicational motivations and escape from the reality were related to communicational, interchangeable, group and news functions and getting information. Motivation and personality characteristics of Iranian users can be as the predictive factors of their performances on Facebook.