Another brick in the Facebook wall – How personality traits relate to the content of status updates

• We analyze Facebook status updates as a new form of one-to-many communication.
• Personality traits are reflected in the tone and style of status updates.
• Narcissists’ postings include deeper self-disclosures and self-promotional content.
• People with low self-efficacy write cautious messages with high mass suitability.
• For dynamic SNS features, narcissism is a stronger predictor than extraversion.

Status updates represent a new form of one-to-many communication which is widely used among members of social networking sites (SNS). The present study investigated the question of who in particular uses the self-presentational opportunities of this feature and which users engage in riskier self-disclosures than others. Combining questionnaire and content analysis, we related self-reports on users’ personality traits (extraversion, narcissism, self-efficacy, need to belong, need for popularity) to the actual use of Facebook status updates. Results showed that higher degrees of narcissism led to deeper self-disclosures and more self-promotional content within these messages. Users with higher need to belong disclosed more intimate information in status updates, while perceived efficacy of self-presentation was negatively related to the mass suitability of postings. Findings extend prior research on personality and SNS usage with regard to dynamic features and content differences in online self-presentation.