Personal correlates of problematic types of social media and mobile phone use in emerging adults

2019

We investigated the occurrence of selected types of problematic social media and mobile phone use in emerging adults, specifically social media and mobile phone overuse, phubbing, creeping, and catfishing. Contemporaneous relations with age, gender, and Big Five personality traits were examined. The participants comprised 459 Slovenian emerging adults, aged 18 to 29 years (68% female). The results suggest that problematic behaviors associated with social media and mobile phone use, with the exception of catfishing, are relatively common among young people. The examined behaviors were negatively related to age, and overuse of mobile phones, social media, and creeping were more prevalent in f…