## 4 Results
### Effects of Personality Traits and Other Factors on SWB During the COVID-19 Pandemic
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**LINE**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Twitter**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Instagram**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**TikTok**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Discord 2**} \\  & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2022** & **2023** \\ \hline \multicolumn{13}{c}{Number of users} \\ Males & 797 & 605 & 405 & 696 & 531 & 354 & 484 & 393 & 293 & 93 & 87 & 64 & 190 & 168 \\ Females & 858 & 654 & 425 & 737 & 529 & 346 & 706 & 555 & 388 & 142 & 115 & 91 & 80 & 80 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Common hobby (\%)} & 21.5 & 20.2 & 21.2 & 45.3 & 38.8 & 44.1 & 26.9 & 29.8 & 28.0 & 5.4 & 6.9 & 1.6 & 42.3 & 44.6 \\  & 127 & 15.4 & 15.8 & 41.7 & 34.6 & 42.2 & 30.5 & 29.0 & 33.2 & 6.3 & 8.7 & 9.9 & 35.0 & 22.5 \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Fulfilling lives} \\ (friends/selves) (\%) & 11.3 & 15.4 & 16.1 & 21.3 & 18.7 & 22.0 & 37.6 & 38.7 & 41.3 & & & 11.1 & 10.7 \\  & 7.5 & 11.9 & 11.3 & 19.5 & 15.4 & 20.8 & 50.4 & 52.8 & 55.0 & & & 5.0 & 5.0 \\ Photos, videos, etc. & 21.3 & 21.8 & 24.9 & 31.9 & 26.6 & 29.2 & 49.6 & 53.4 & 49.8 & 4.3 & 8.1 & 4.7 & 21.6 & 22.0 \\ (\%) & 19.9 & 21.4 & 23.8 & 30.5 & 23.7 & 26.3 & 62.5 & 64.3 & 62.0 & 6.3 & 12.2 & 8.8 & 10.0 & 10.0 \\ Replies to friends & 38.8 & 43.3 & 50.4 & 30.3 & 23.3 & 31.6 & 13.4 & 12.5 & 17.1 & 5.4 & & 53.2 & 46.4 \\ (\%) & 38.5 & 40.4 & 41.9 & 32.8 & 24.8 & 26.3 & 19.7 & 16.4 & 18.2 & 0.7 & & 37.5 & 37.5 \\ Daily friendship (\%) & 27.0 & 26.5 & 33.6 & 18.3 & 17.4 & 21.8 & 20.3 & 20.9 & 21.8 & & & 26.8 & 19.1 \\  & 19.8 & 23.7 & 23.5 & 20.5 & 19.3 & 19.1 & 29.9 & 30.5 & 32.7 & & & 12.5 & 8.8 \\ Reports and grades & 10.0 & 11.7 & 9.9 & 12.2 & 9.8 & 12.4 & & & & & & 7.4 & 8.3 \\  & 4.6 & 7.0 & 6.8 & 9.4 & 10.1 & 11.0 & & & & & & 3.8 & 3.8 \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Masochistic (\%)} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Job hunting (\%)} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Others (\%)} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{37.8} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{48.5} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{42.4} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{41.4} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{37.2} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{48.5} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{42.4} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{47.4} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{21.8} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{42.4} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{47.4} \\ \end{tabular}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c c c} \hline  & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**TikTok**} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Discord 2**} \\  & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** & **2022** & **2023** \\ \hline \multicolumn{13}{c}{Number of users} \\ Males & 797 & 605 & 405 & 696 & 531 & 354 & 484 & 393 & 293 & 93 & 87 & 64 & 190 & 168 \\ Females & 858 & 654 & 425 & 737 & 529 & 346 & 706 & 555 & 388 & 142 & 115 & 91 & 80 & 80 \\ \hline \multirow{3}{*}{Common hobby (\%)} & 21.5 & 20.2 & 21.2 & 45.3 & 38.8 & 44.1 & 26.9 & 29.8 & 28.0 & 5.4 & 6.9 & 1.6 & 42.3 & 44.6 \\  & 127 & 15.4 & 15.8 & 41.7 & 34.6 & 42.2 & 30.5 & 29.0 & 33.2 & 6.3 & 8.7 & 9.9 & 35.0 & 22.5 \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Fulfilling lives} \\ (friends/selves) (\%) & 11.3 & 15.4 & 16.1 & 21.3 & 18.7 & 22.0 & 37.6 & 38.7 & 41.3 & & & & 11.1 & 10.7 \\  & 7.5 & 11.9 & 11.3 & 19.5 & 15.4 & 20.8 & 50.4 & 52.8 & 55.0 & & & 5.0 & 5.0 \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{Phots, videos, etc.} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{(\%)} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{(\%)} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{21.8} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{24.9} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{21.8} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{24.9} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{31.9} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{24.9} \\ \multicolumn{13}{c}{24.  
cial support received from others and levels of SWB increased continuously. Finally, depression tendency reached its highest level in 2022 and fell to its lowest level in 2023.  
We further examined these factors to determine whether there was any relationship between the respective social media use patterns and gender. Table 7 summarizes the results. As mentioned above, trends in the overall group regarding gender were also observed (Table 6). Several differences were found. First, generalized trust remained almost the same across the three social media use patterns over the three-year period. Except for the differences between males and females in Pattern 1 in 2021, there were no gender differences. In addition, except for Pattern 1 in 2021, male scores for the self-indeterminate factor were significantly higher than those of females, whereas female scores for the other two patterns were higher. For the desire for self-presentation and admiration subscales, the praise acquisition factor for Pattern 1 generally increased over the three years, whereas it decreased for Pattern 2. Additionally, a slight increase in the topic avoidance factor was observed for Pattern 3 from 2022 to 2023, whereas the overall results for the other two patterns showed no significant changes. However, female scores for topic avoidance in the three patterns over the three-year period were higher than male scores. Moreover, while the overall results of the self-appeal factor showed a decrease in these three years for Patterns 1 and 2, the male scores were higher than the female scores in most cases. Regarding depression tendency, the values of Pattern 3 were much higher than those of the other two groups, with higher scores for females across all patterns over the three years. The results confirmed that these factors were related to social media use patterns and gender differences. Moreover, although female scores for social support were significantly higher than those of males in Pattern 1 in 2021, no similar results were detected in other patterns and years. Finally, there were no gender differences in OCSs across all patterns over the three years.  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Scales**} & **2021** & **2022** & **2023** \\  & **(_n_ = 1681)** & **(_n_ = 1292)** & **(_n_ = 851)** \\ \hline Generalized Trust (0.81/0.82/0.81) & 20.46 & 20.48 & 20.57 \\ Self-consciousness and Friendship: & & & \\ Self-indeterminate factor & & & \\ (0.76/0.76/0.78) & 3.41 & 3.69 & 3.74 \\ Self-establishment factor & 3.65 & 3.50 & 3.43 \\ (0.74/0.73/0.74) & 2.93 & 3.00 & 3.01 \\ Self-independent factor & 3.51 & 3.35 & 3.27 \\ (0.69/0.67/0.73) & & & \\ Self-variable factor (0.63/0.60/0.60) & & & \\ Desire for Self-presentation and & & & \\ Admiration: & & & \\ Rejection avoidance factor & & & \\ (0.85/0.86/0.86) & 2.68 & 3.57 & 3.55 \\ \multicolumn{4}{l}{Praise acquisition factor} & 3.12 & 3.16 & 3.24 \\ (0.83/0.83/0.82) & 3.55 & 2.72 & 2.77 \\ \multicolumn{4}{l}{Self-appeal factor (0.82/0.82/0.81)} & 3.88 & 3.87 & 3.89 \\ \multicolumn{4}{l}{Topic avoidance factor} & & \\ (0.72/0.75/0.72) & & & \\ Online Communication Skills (OCSs) & 55.11 & 55.43 & 55.50 \\ (0.75/0.78/0.80) & 24.55 & 22.50 & 17.93 \\ Anxiety toward COVID-19 (0.74/0.76/0.82) & 3.24 & 3.57 & 2.94 \\ Depression Tendency 2 & 66.68 & 68.98 & 69.70 \\ \multicolumn{4}{l}{SWB (0.86/0.90/0.90)} & 48.68 & 49.53 & 51.85 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
* The values of [PERSON]’s alpha for the three years are provided consecutively in the paratheses after each variable. 2 As depression tendency was measured using yes/no responses, [PERSON]’s Alpha values are not reported.  
\end{table}
Table 6: Changes over time in personality traits with other variables of university students 1.  
* The value of \(n\) includes respondents who reported their gender as “other”, and the first row of data is the overall average, which includes all the analyzed participants. 2 When the average scores of males and females are statistically different, the values are reported in bold and italics. Higher scores between males and females are underlined.  
\end{table}