Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Personality and Individual Differences

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Self-presentation styles, privacy, and loneliness as predictors of Facebook

use in young people
Agata Bachnio , Aneta Przepiorka , Wioleta Boruch, Edyta Baakier
The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Poland

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 20 June 2015
Received in revised form 19 November 2015
Accepted 31 December 2015
Available online 13 January 2016
Keywords:
Facebook use
Self-presentation
Need for privacy
Loneliness

a b s t r a c t
Facebook is an increasingly popular online platform for communication, entertainment, and information exchange. Recent studies have shown that there is a relationship between loneliness and Facebook use patterns.
The main aim of the study was to examine whether the use of different types of self-presentation styles, the
need for privacy, and loneliness are related to three aspects of Facebook use: standard Facebook use, addiction
to Facebook, and entertainment. The participants were 550 individuals (mean age: M = 19.86 years, SD =
3.06). We used the following measures: the Facebook Usage Questionnaire, the Self-Presentation Styles Questionnaire by Wojciszke, the Privacy Questionnaire by Pedersen, and De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. The
paper-and-pencil procedure was applied. Our results indicated that loneliness and self-promotion were positive
predictors and the need for privacy was a negative predictor of Facebook usage. This study might open new perspectives on factors leading to addictive Facebook use tendencies.
2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Facebook and its increasing popularity has become an interesting
topic for scientic research, which is reected in the rising number of
publications on that subject. The search conducted in the EBSCO database in May 2015, returned 634 articles concerning Facebook in the
eld of psychology published in peer-reviewed journals between
2014 and 2015. Facebook connects people with similar interests as
well as allows them to share opinions and keep up-to-date with their
friends' lives (Raacke & Bonds-Raacke, 2008). Facebook is slowly replacing other forms of electronic communication, such as e-mails
(Anderson, Fagan, Woodnutt, & Chamorro-Premuzic, 2012). According
to data from second quarter 2015 (http://www.statista.com), released
on the Facebook website, there are 1.49 billion monthly active users. A
majority of the users, approximately 80%, are from outside the U.S.
and Canada. What is more, there were more than 125 billion friend connections on Facebook. According to statistics, the United States,
Indonesia, and Mexico are among the top growing countries in terms
of Facebook activity (www.socialbakers.com). When it comes to statistics for Poland, where the present study was conducted, there are almost ten million Facebook users there and the number is growing
every year. Poland holds the 24th position in the world in the number
of Facebook users. More than half of them (52%) are females. The largest
age groups are young people in the 1824 and 2534 age brackets
Corresponding authors at: Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University
of Lublin, Al. Racawickie 14, 20-950 Lublin, Poland.
E-mail addresses: gatta@kul.pl (A. Bachnio), aneta.przepiorka@gmail.com
(A. Przepiorka).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2015.12.051
0191-8869/ 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(www.socialbakers.com). Considering these ndings conrming the

large scale of the Facebook phenomenon and its great impact on social
life, it is worth taking a closer look at Facebook use and at the possible
predictors of this online activity. Several studies have investigated
Facebook use before, but the novelty of this one lies in its investigation
of loneliness, the need for privacy, and self-presentation styles together
as possible predictors of Facebook use.
The background for this study is the motivation theory, applied here
to Facebook use. Socializing and self-presentation are the main motives
to use Facebook. The inclusion of the need for privacy and loneliness
was inspired by the Hosman's study (1991), where these variables,
among others, were examined in relation to interpersonal communication. Both of them were related to the interpersonal communication
motive for using Facebook. Bringing together the need for privacy and
loneliness as robust predictors of Facebook use known from other studies will give us better insight into their associations with Facebook addiction. Bearing in mind the socializing aspect of Facebook and its
great inuence on communication, applying these variables in the
context of social networking sites seems to be a good opportunity to explore the subject of motives for Facebook use. One of the main motives
for using Facebook is building social capital (Ellison, Steineld, & Lampe,
2007). Therefore, examining the inuence of this motive for socializing
with others on Facebook and thus reducing loneliness is great important. On the other hand these motives the desire to maintain privacy
and the desire to reveal information are in constant opposition to
each other, and setting the right balance between them may change in
the course of life. Going even further in this direction and including
the way people present themselves on Facebook in this set of predictors
may bring interesting results. de Gierveld, van Tilburg, and Dykstra

A. Bachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

(2006) distinguished positive and negative types of loneliness. Privacy

can be dened as the chosen and temporary state of withdrawal from
social presence.
The need for privacy is one of the human needs that give people their
identity, autonomy, and individuality (Jdruszczak, 2005). Considering
that privacy has become one of the major concerns for Facebook users
and that privacy violations have become quite frequent (Glac, Elm, &
Martin, 2014), the issue of privacy needs further investigation. In recent
years, with the development of social media, the meaning of privacy has
been changing (Bachnio, Przepiorka, Baakier, & Boruch, 2016).
Facebook offers some privacy settings that restrict access selected personal information on the prole; however, users differ in the ways
they apply these settings and in the degree to which they reveal private
information to other users. Some age differences in the usage pattern
have also been found (Brandtzg, Lders, & Skjetne, 2010). Young
users were found to have a better ability to control their privacy on
Facebook. Of its very nature and thanks to the available applications,
Facebook facilitates disclosure of some personal information (Forest &
Wood, 2012; Jones, Millermaier, Goya-Martinez, & Schuler, 2008;
Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009).
Many researchers have examined the motives for using Facebook
(Bachnio, Przepirka, & Rudnicka, 2013). According to Brandtzg
et al. (2010) entertainment and leisure is one of these motives. The authors coined the term social curiosity to refer to a motive for using
Facebook that prompts people to follow other users' proles.
Another motive might be socializing with other Facebook users. According to Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012), one of the basic social needs
behind Facebook use was the need to belong. Other motives, identied
in a study by Ellison et al. (2007), were keeping up with the lives of one's
acquaintances and building social capital. The same study showed that
students who used Facebook felt more integrated with the university
community and felt less lonely. Facebook might be a remedy for the
loneliness that is experienced as a lack of relationships and is an unpleasant feeling for an individual (de Jong-Gierveld, 1987). The study
by Bonetti, Campbell, and Gilmore (2010) examined loneliness and online disclosure of information and concluded that the Internet may facilitate disclosing intimate information online. Other studies showed that
the Internet may be a source of emotional support for lonely people
(Morahan-Martin & Schumacher, 2003). There is a relationship between the use of social networking sites (SNS) and loneliness (Burke,
Marlow, & Lento, 2010; Shaw & Gant, 2002), conrming the impact of
more intense SNS and Internet usage on decreasing loneliness as well
as its positive contribution to building social capital and boosting wellbeing. However, it is necessary to distinguish between online and ofine
connectedness; those who used Facebook for social purposes were less
lonely online but not in real life (Grieve, Indian, Witteveen, Anne Tolan,
& Marrington, 2013). Depending on the level of intensity, SNS use may
have different effects. Active use for instance, posting messages or status updating was found to be related to lower loneliness, while passive
social networking, such as viewing photos or reading other peoples'
conversations, made users more lonely (Burke et al., 2010). Some studies also showed a relationship between loneliness and the pattern of
Facebook use. Lonely users had a tendency to disclose more emotional
information (Lee, Noh, & Koo, 2013) or more personal information
(Al-Saggaf & Nielsen, 2014). The meta-analysis done by Song et al.
(2014) showed that the effect that occurred was lonely people using
Facebook rather than Facebook making people lonely.
The other basic social need behind Facebook use, according to
Nadkarni and Hofmann (2012), is the need for self-presentation.
Facebook as a platform for maintaining social interactions has become
a place for self-presentation and self-expression as well as a place for
presenting one's interests and hobbies (Kuo, Tseng, Tseng, & Lin,
2013). Self-presentation in an activity aimed at modifying one's own
image to change the way one is viewed by other people and an attempt
to make the desired impression (Szmajke, 1999). Self-presentation and
self-depreciation are the two styles adopted in an automatic and

27

habitual way (Wojciszke, 2002). The suppression of activities is the

main strategy used for managing one's image in the Internet. People
tend to delete that part of their image which can lead to social disapproval, and this tendency is stronger in women (Strano & Wattai
Queen, 2012). The gender differences in self-presentation on Facebook
can stem from different motives for Facebook use. Haferkamp, Eimler,
Papadakis, and Kruck (2012) showed that women use SNSs to compare
themselves with others whereas men tend to use them to nd friends.
Some researchers indicate a new the problem: extensive Facebook
use (Elphinston & Noller, 2011), dened as the kind of usage that lead
to negative outcomes (Ryan, Chester, Reece, & Xenos, 2014). Some studies show that intensive use of social networking sites is related to a high
level of loneliness (Spraggins, 2011). In the literature there are some
methods measuring Facebook use, most of them are one-factor measures (e.g. Andreassen, Torsheim, Brunborg, & Pallesen, 2012;
Elphinston & Noller, 2011).
The present study was multifaceted. Its rst aim was to develop a
new scale to measure different aspects of Facebook usage. The other
aim was to examine whether differ types of self-presentation styles,
the need for privacy, and loneliness were related to Facebook usage.
Since the present study has an exploratory character, and since the
new construct of Facebook use will be tested in it, only general assumptions were formulated in order to verify the possible directions for
future studies examining Facebook behavior. Based on the results
outlined in the above introduction, we supposed that loneliness and
self-presentation would be positive predictors and the need for privacy
a negative predictor of Facebook usage. The hypotheses were tested
among young Facebook users.
2. Method
2.1. Participants and procedure
The sample consisted of 551 individuals aged 15 to 29 years. Their
mean age was M = 19.86 years (SD = 3.06 years), and 71% of them
were women. The participants were recruited in two types of schools:
senior high schools (N = 231) and universities or colleges (N = 320)
in different regions of Poland. The paper-and-pencil procedure was
used. The participants were approached in their classrooms and asked
to complete a paper booklet of questionnaires. They volunteered for
the study and received no monetary reward. All the participants reported that they had proles on Facebook. They were informed that participation in the study was anonymous.
2.2. Measures
The following methods are used:
The Facebook Usage Questionnaire
Based on a review of the literature, a set of 46 statements concerning
Facebook use was developed. The main aim of developing this questionnaire was to obtain an instrument for measuring different aspect of
Facebook use and the level of attachment to Facebook. The questionnaire utilized a ve-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (not at all true of
me) to 5 (very true of me). The study materials were posted online.
The invitation for potential participants was sent as an e-mail, containing the study's URL. The requirement for participating in this study was
having a Facebook account. For this reason, the rst page contained only
one question: Do you have a Facebook account? Only those who replied positively were directed to the questionnaire; those who replied
No were thanked for their time. The questionnaire took approximately 10 min to complete. In order to investigate the structure of the questionnaire, we performed a factor analysis with the aim of extracting the
factors that emerged. A principal components analysis with Varimax rotation was performed, yielding three factors. We chose the items with
loadings higher than .40. The nal version of the method had 38 items
(see Table 1). The rst factor explained 35.68% of the variability and

28

A. Bachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

Table 1
Loadings of the items of Facebook usage questionnaire.
Standard Facebook
use
I log into Facebook
Loguj si na Facebooka
I look through the proles of other persons
Przegldam prole innych osb
I look for my colleagues
Wyszukuj znajomych
I accept invitations
I Przyjmuj zaproszenia
I use chat
Korzystam z czatu
I comment on other users' status updates
Umieszczam komentarze do wypowiedzi innych osb
I initiate topics
Sam inicjuj wtki
I update my prole
Aktualizuj swj prol
I mark events. And photos using the Like button
Oznaczam informacje. Wydarzenia. zdjcia jako Lubi to
I post links to other sites
Umieszczam odnoniki do innych stron
I start my day from logging on to Facebook
Zaczynam dzie od wczenia Facebooka
I look at other users' photos
Ogldam zdjcia innych osb
I comment on other users' photos
Komentuj zdjcia innych osb
I reply to invitations to some events
Odpowiadam na zaproszenia na wydarzenia
I check whose birthday it is
Sprawdzam. kto ma urodziny
I take part in discussions
Bior udzia w dyskusji
I type comments in groups where I am a member
Wpisuj komentarze w grupach. Ktrych jestem czonkiem
I send private messages to others
Pisz prywatne wiadomoci do innych osb
I read private messages from others
Czytam prywatne wiadomoci od innych osb
I create events
Tworz wydarzenia
I cannot imagine my life without Facebook.
Nie wyobraam sobie ycia bez Facebooka
I am always logged on to Facebook
Jestem stale zalogowany na Facebooku
I cannot wait to upload photos or write what happened in my day
Nie mog si doczeka umieszczenia zdj lub przedstawienia swojej relacji z tego. co si u mnie dziao
A day without Facebook is a day wasted
Dzie bez Facebooka to dzie stracony
If something is not on Facebook. it is as if it did not exist
Jeli co nie jest na Facebooku. to tak jakby to nie istniao
The best form of relaxation for me is Facebook activity
Najlepsz form odpoczynku dla mnie jest aktywno na Facebooku
I have noticed that if a friend does not have a Facebook account my relationship with them becomes weaker
Zauwayem. e jeli jaki znajomy nie ma konta na Facebooku moje relacje z nim rozluniaj si
It frightens me that Facebook would be shut down
Przeraa mnie myl. e Facebook mgby przesta istnie
Facebook plays an important role in my life
Facebook peni wan rol w moim yciu
Facebook is the best way to establish or maintain relationships
Facebook jest najlepszym sposobem na nawizanie lub podtrzymanie znajomoci
I can promote myself using Facebook
Za pomoc Facebooka mog promowa moj osob
I play games
Gram w gry
I play quizzes
Wypeniam quizy
I ll in questionnaires
Uzupeniam ankiety
I choose quotes
Losuj cytaty
I accept invitations to games from others
Przyjmuj zaproszenia do gier od innych osb
I check who has visited my prole

Facebook
addiction

Facebook
entertainment

.694

.104

.057

.656

.224

.138

.528

.149

.322

.682

.113

.150

.692

.127

.038

.798

.233

.165

.610

.307

.210

.533

.323

.373

.760

.186

.114

.624

.241

.187

.494

.367

.156

.669

.182

.060

.682

.297

.200

.627

.187

.167

.504

.226

.336

.667

.308

.104

.639

.135

.065

.756

.092

.067

.748

.149

.030

.211

.452

.348

.366

.623

.141

.309

.500

.071

.253

.674

.363

.155

.757

.323

.176

.792

.112

.111

.698

.283

.172

.693

.158

.089

.768

.235

.233

.830

.072

.236

.755

.184

.240

.678

.165

.001

.297

.613

.167

.138

.825

.203

.006

.723

.214

.187

.466

.052
.050

.346
.179

.514
.567

A. Bachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

29

Table 1 (continued)
Standard Facebook
use
Sprawdzam. kto oglda mj prol
I post pictures
Umieszczam zdjcia

.389

Facebook
addiction

.341

Facebook
entertainment

.502

Items with loadings higher than .40 are in bold.

was labeled Standard Facebook Use, dened as frequent use of

Facebook. It comprised 19 items, such as I initiate topics or I type comments in groups where I am a member. The second factor, labeled
Facebook Addiction, explained 8.57% of the variability. This factor was
dened as problematic Facebook use with unsuccessful attempts to
give up. It comprised 12 items, such as It frightens me that Facebook
would be shut down or I cannot imagine my life without Facebook. The
third factor, labeled Facebook Entertainment, explained 5.51% of the
variability. It comprised 7 items, such as I play games. This factor is connected with the use of Facebook for pleasure. Reliability was examined
and found to be acceptable for all the three factors (Cronbach's alpha
was .88 for the rst factor, .85 for the second one, and .69 for the third
one).
The Self-Presentation Styles Questionnaire by Wojciszke (2002) measuring the tendency to use two styles of self-presentation: selfpromotion and self-depreciation. The scale consists 30 items, 15 items
for each style. Example items are: I undervalue my achievements or I emphasize my abilities. The items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale.
Cronbach's was .84 for Factor 1 and .77 for Factor 2.
The Privacy Questionnaire by Pedersen as adapted into Polish by
Jdruszczak (2005), measuring the need for privacy. It contains 30
items rated on a 5-point Likert scale. An example item is: Sometimes I
need to get away from others and be alone. Cronbach's was .74.
The Loneliness Scale (de Jong-Gierveld & Kamphuis, 1985) as adapted
into Polish by Grygiel, Humenny, Rebisz, witaj, and Sikorska (2013),
measuring the level of loneliness. The scale consists of 11 items. An example item is: I miss having really close friends. The items are rated on a
5-point Likert scale. Cronbach's was .86.

3. Results
The descriptive statistics (means and standard deviations of
Facebook usage variables) are presented in Table 2. Additionally,
Pearson's r correlations between the variables were computed. Standard Facebook use was positively related to self-promotion and negatively to the need for privacy. Facebook addiction was positively
associated with self-promotion and loneliness. As regards Facebook entertainment, it was positively related to both self-promotion and selfdepreciation as well as to loneliness.

Table 3 provides information on the results of regression analyses for three aspects of Facebook usage. Hierarchical multiple
regression analyses were performed to assess the impact of gender,
age, self-presentation style (self-promotion and self-depreciation),
the need for privacy, and loneliness. In the rst step, the demographic variables (gender and age) were entered, followed in the
second step by self-presentation style, the need for privacy, and
loneliness.
The results indicated that the demographic variables did not account
for a statistically signicant proportion of the variance in standard
Facebook use and Facebook addiction. They did account for a statistically signicant proportion of the variance in Facebook entertainment,
R2 = .01, p b .01; F(2, 524) = 3.864. Entering other variables in Step 2
resulted in a statistically signicant increment in the explained variance
for each aspects of Facebook usage: standard Facebook use, R2 = .15,
p b .001; F(4, 518) = 23.747; Facebook addiction, R2 = .19, p b .001;
F(4, 518) = 17.453; Facebook entertainment, R2 = .07, p b .001; F(4,
520) = 7.148.
In the case of Standard Facebook Use, self-promotion and loneliness
were found to have signicant positive beta weights ( = .34, p = .001
and = .10, p = .023, respectively) and the need for privacy had a negative beta weight ( = .21, p = .001). Similarly, in the case of
Facebook addiction, self-promotion, and loneliness were found to
have signicant positive beta weights ( = .25, p = .001 and = .24,
p = .001, respectively) and the need for privacy had a negative beta
weight ( = .17, p = .001). Thus, a high level of self-promotion and
loneliness and a low level of the need of privacy can be predictors of
both standard Facebook use and Facebook addiction. In the case of
Facebook entertainment, both styles of self-presentation were found
to have signicant positive beta weights (self-promotion: = .13,
p = .002, and self-depreciation: = .12, p = .008), and loneliness
had a signicant positive beta weight as well ( = .13, p = .007).
Because the need for privacy was not signicantly correlated with
Facebook Addiction even though it was a signicant predictor in the regression analyses, we veried it in a post-hoc suppression analyses. We
checked if loneliness was a suppressor variable.
As we can see in Fig. 1, the mediation analysis revealed signicant
suppression of the relationship between the need for privacy and
Facebook addiction by loneliness (the result of the Sobel test was 3.02,
p = .002). The relationship between the need for privacy and Facebook

Table 2
Means, standard deviations, and correlations between variables.

1. Standard Facebook use

2. Facebook addiction
3. Facebook entertainment
4. Self-promotion
5. Self-depreciation
6. Need for privacy
7. Loneliness
p b .05.
p b .01.
p b .001.

SD

3.27
2.07
5.17
3.10
2.89
2.63
2.33

.77
.82
.47
.60
.57
.42
.80

1
.65
.35
.32
.03
.16
.01

.41
.23
.06
.08
.17

.10
.14
.08
.16

.03
.10
.11

.31
.26

.30

30

A. Bachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

Table 3
Results of hierarchical multiple regression of standard Facebook use, Facebook addiction,
and Facebook entertainment on demographic and personality variables.
Standard
Facebook use

Gender
Age
Self-promotion
Self-depreciation
Need for privacy
Loneliness
R2
R2 change

Facebook
addiction

Facebook
entertainment

Step 1

Step 2

Step 1

Step 2

Step 1

Step 2

.06
.03

.07
.05
.34

.01
.01

.01
.01
.25

.11
.04

.10
.04
.13
.12

.001
.005

.08
.21
.10
.149
.154

.004
.001

.07
.17
.24
.109
.119

.01
.01

.01
.13
.06
.05

Note. All beta weights are standardized; all R2 values presented in the results are adjusted
R2 values.
p b .05.
p b .01.
p b .001.

addiction, which was initially not statistically signicant, became significantly negative after controlling for loneliness.
4. Discussion
The aim of this study was to develop new methods measuring
Facebook use as well as to explore the relationships between and different patterns of Facebook usage and loneliness, self-presentation styles,
and the need for privacy. The results of the study revealed several predictors of Facebook usage.
A new tool named Facebook Usage Questionnaire was created, with
good psychometrical properties. Three factors were obtained: standard
Facebook use, Facebook addiction, and Facebook entertainment.
As hypothesized, loneliness was a positive predictor of Facebook addiction, standard Facebook use, and Facebook entertainment. This result
is similar to that of the study by Teppers, Luyckx, Klimstra, and Goossens
(2014), who found that different motives for using Facebook may result
in different effect on loneliness. Adolescents who used Facebook for social skills compensation became more lonely over time, whereas adolescents who used Facebook for making new friends became less lonely.
The present study also took up the problem of addictive Facebook use.
According to its ndings, those users who feel lonely may be more vulnerable to Facebook addictive tendencies.
As expected, the need for privacy was a negative predictor of Standard Facebook Use and Facebook Addiction. Those who value their privacy are not willing to reveal much information on their proles, which
is negatively related to extensive Facebook use or results in fascination
with Facebook. There is a relationship between privacy value (or

privacy concerns) and self-disclosure (Zlatolas, Welzer, Heriko, &

Hlbl, 2015). Those who are concerned about their privacy more often
quit Facebook (Stieger, Burger, Bohn, & Voracek, 2013).
We expected, quite logically, that self-promotion would be a positive
predictor of Facebook usage. This hypothesis has been conrmed for
such aspects of Facebook usage as Facebook Addiction, Standard
Facebook Use, and Facebook Entertainment. In the light of this result, it
seems that people who have a tendency to present themselves more
often use Facebook in unhealthy ways. Self-presentation is related to
high self-esteem and narcissism (Wojciszke, 2002). Facebook is a place
where people can easily create their image in the desired way. Consequently, users with a strong tendency for self-presentation can become
immersed in Facebook. On the other hand, people with a low level of
self-esteem and narcissism choose Facebook for self-presentation as a
safe place without the necessity of direct personal interaction.
Self-depreciation was a positive predictor of Facebook Entertainment. We can suppose that people who diminish their value more
often treat Facebook as a refuge and a place where they can hide their
anxieties. This is supported by the results that conrmed the relationship between excessive Facebook use and low self-esteem (Malik &
Khan, 2012). People use Facebook to feel better and to raise their selfesteem (e.g., Toma, 2013).
We found that there was no signicant correlation between the
need for privacy and Facebook addiction. The analysis of the relationship between the need for privacy and Facebook Addiction revealed a
suppression effect. If we additionally control for the level of loneliness,
this relationship becomes signicant. There is a negative relationship
between the need for privacy and Facebook addiction, in other words,
the need for privacy protects from excessive Facebook use, but only to
a certain extent. At some point, this protection can become counterproductive because high privacy is related to loneliness, and lonely people
are more vulnerable to Facebook addiction. This side effect of protection
can be labeled as the paradoxical effect of the need for privacy.
Several limitations of the study have to be mentioned. A majority of
the participants were females; however, this reects the gender proportion at the universities and schools in Poland. Analyses of gender differences in Facebook use could be a direction for future studies. The kind of
activity on Facebook was not measured. In future studies, an analysis of
activity type should be included: it may provide additional information
on the relationship between Facebook use and users' characteristics.
More personality characteristics should be taken into account in future
studies, such as the dark triad of personality. Another possible limitation
is the cross-sectional character of the present study. Its exploratory
character should be mentioned, too. It suggests that replications of the
reported ndings should be conducted.
To sum up, loneliness, the need for privacy, and self-promotion are
predictors of Facebook usage. This study might open new perspectives
on the factors leading to addictive Facebook use tendencies.

Fig. 1. Suppression of the association between the need for privacy and Facebook addiction by loneliness.

A. Bachnio et al. / Personality and Individual Differences 94 (2016) 2631

Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the NCN No. 2014/15/
B/HS6/03129.
Dr. Aneta Przepiorka was supported by the Foundation for Polish
Science (FNP, START 88.2015-W).
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