Personality traits and motivational patterns of social media use among undergraduate medical students at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia

Introduction Social media has become deeply embedded in the daily lives of medical students, shaping communication, learning, and leisure activities. While demographic predictors of social media use are well documented, the role of personality traits in shaping distinct motivational patterns remains underexplored in the Saudi Arabian context. Aim and objectives Drawing on the Big Five personality framework, this study examined how Big Five personality traits predict socialization, entertainment, informational, and academic motives for social media engagement among medical students. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 370 undergraduate medical students at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. Participants completed the Big Five Inventory–10 and the Social Networking Usage Questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses assessed the unique contribution of personality traits to social media motives after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics and patterns of social media engagement. Results Extraversion and neuroticism were both positively associated with socialization ( β = 0.17 and β = 0.15, respectively; p 0.01) and entertainment motives ( β = 0.16 for both; p 0.01). Openness to experience predicted informational motives ( β = 0.15, p 0.01) but was not associated with academic use. Conscientiousness was positively associated with entertainment motives ( β = 0.16, p 0.01), while agreeableness did not significantly predict any motivational domain. Collectively, the Big Five traits explained a modest but statistically significant additional proportion of variance in overall social media motives beyond demographic and usage factors (Δ R 2 = 0.03, p 0.01). Conclusion Personality traits exert a differentiated and meaningful influence on the motivational drivers of social media use among medical students. Extraversion and neuroticism primarily shape socially and emotionally oriented engagement, openness facilitates exploratory information-seeking, and conscientiousness supports regulated entertainment use. These findings underscore the value of personality-informed approaches in understanding digital behavior within medical education and may inform targeted interventions to promote adaptive social media engagement.