How you use Facebook reveals your personality, says research

Social media has come a long way from being just a means to keep in touch. People use it to express their joy, sorrow and also vent out their anger and frustration. What you post on Facebook can reveal the kind of person you are. A new study by researchers of the University of Missouri developed a new scale that helps judge a person’s personality from the way they use Facebook. The study claims that all those people who like high-risk activity tend to update their statuses often, and also upload photos and interact with friends frequently. On the flip side, those who are reserved, rarely scroll through Facebook’s “news feed”, and don’t indulge in uploading photos or actively engaging with their friends.

This scale is said to have been created after surveying people about the way they use Facebook. It also had them take a personality test. According to the study, those who like indulging in high-risk activities were labeled under ‘appetitive’ and the ones who are more reserved were called ‘aversive.’ It was observed that both personality types use Facebook frequently but the significant difference was found in how each uses the site, as per Heather Shoenberger, who is the leader of the research team.

“If you’re highly ‘appetitive’ or lean toward high-risk activities, you’re more likely to want to engage with media that are more exciting, whereas those who are higher in the aversive trait tend to enjoy safer and more predictable media experiences,” Shoenberger was quoted as saying by LiveScience. She further said, “I believe this could really help advertisers and certain types of media groups target potential customers with particular ads on social media sites.” she said. She said that individuals could be identified through the motivation activation measure, thus giving advertisers an advantage over their competitors and bringing order to online advertising. She said companies that want to target consumers for a high-risk activity should determine active Facebook users who frequently post pictures and update their status.

Earlier reports had revealed that Facebook is launching a new type of mobile advertising that targets consumers, according to what apps they use, giving companies better options to track what people do on their phones. Lately, there were several researches conducted claiming the effects of Facebook. Earlier this month, a study had revealed the negative impact of social networks on young girls. Experts pointed out that Facebook and Twitter are changing the way girls speak, making them more aggressive. These social networks are said to promote terser sentences, which can make youngsters appear rude and disrespectful. The Salford Business School, University of Salford had conducted a poll recently for the charity Anxiety UK, which revealed that social networks like Facebook and Twitter escalate anxiety. It found that more than half of the participants surveyed felt that the social sites had changed their behaviour. Out of the participants who felt so, about 50 percent said that their lives had been altered for the worse. The ones who disclosed that social media has had a negative impact on them, believed that their confidence dropped after comparing their achievements with that of their friends online.

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