Students’ Profiles of Information Seeking Behaviors on Facebook: Relations to Personality, Time Management, Gender, and Facebook Use

Abstract

This study attempts to explore for different profiles of information seeking behaviors on Facebook and to analyze whether or not personality, time management, gender and Facebook use are viable differentiating students based on the their profiles. The data were collected through self-report scales from 196 university students of the three public universities. Cluster analysis was used to explore the profiles. Discriminant analysis was performed to identify a boundary among the students’ profiles based on personality, time management, gender and Facebook use of students. We found five different clusters based on information seeking behaviors of Facebook of the students. The results shows significant differences among these clusters. The result of discriminant analysis indicates that personality, time management and Facebook use are meaningful for discriminating information seeking behavior groups of students. The study reveals that students with high scores of information seeking behavior on Facebook have also high scores on openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness and extroversion, time management skills. In spite of its limitations, the study certainly adds to our understanding of profiles of students using Facebook as a source of information.