Autobiographical memory, Big five personality traits and personal life events on Facebook

The associations between directive, self and social functions of autobiographical memory, Big Five personality traits, personal life events people record on their Facebook profiles are analyzed. Questionnaires gathered data from a sample of 193 Italian Facebook users (F=148; M=45; Mage = 22.8, SD = 6.8) and analyzed by path analysis using AMOS. Results showed that direct and significant paths are among extraversion and openness both with the directive, self and social functions of autobiographical memory. Besides, neuroticism predicts directive and self-continuity function of autobiographical memory and conscientiousness the directive one. As well, indirect significant positive paths among extraversion, neuroticism, openness and the frequency of photos about personal life events people upload on Facebook, has emerged via the mediation of the self-continuity function of AMs. The present study highlights that autobiographical memory and personality traits are related to the use of social media as a repository tool for personal life events.