Relating on the Internet, Personality Traits and Depression: Research and Implications Antonia Papastylianou* a [a] Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini, Greece. Abstract The Internet as a social media space implies its own terms as far as its operation, social interaction and influence are concerned. In this, excessive Internet use – especially among young people –, occasionally indicates the existence of certain disorders such as addiction, depression or even co-morbidity of disorders. This study aimed at investigating the extent to which Greek students are Internet over-users/ addicted and furthermore answering the hypotheses whether Internet addiction is correlated to certain personality traits (namely openness and extraversion) and depression, controlling for certain demographics such as gender and faculty of studies (Social, Humanities Vs Exact Sciences). The sample consisting of N = 404 students from the Social Sciences, Humanities and Exact Sciences departments of Greek universities and technical colleges were administered a self-reporting questionnaire on Internet addiction, personality traits-NEO-FFI, Depression (CES-D) and demographics. Results show that a rather low percentage of students fulfilled the criteria to be considered as Internet addicted, and this was associated mainly with openness and only marginaly with neuroticism regarding the Big-Five Personality factors. Further analysis controlling for Depression, gender and type of studies showed that the association between Big-Five and Internet addiction was even weaker, pointing out that this association is confounded by the factors included in the analysis. Keywords: Internet addiction, Big-Five personality traits, depression The European Journal of Counselling Psychology, 2013, Vol. 2(1), 65–78, doi:10.5964/ejcop.v2i1.6 Received: 2011-11-29. Accepted: 2012-11-17. Published: 2013-03-28. *Corresponding author at: 36, Kedron Str., Dhrosia, 14572 Athens, Greece. E-mail: apapast@socadm.duth.gr This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Introduction For a large percentage of predominantly young people – the Net Generation – (those born after 1977), most of their interpersonal relations and therefore communication is switching from real to virtual, implying the use of the computer as a means therein. Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) emerges as the most effective method of “synchronized” interaction, allowing picture, script and voice to appear simultaneously in high tech applications and Internet service. High speed and fast action are the properties young people usually choose to endorse. These being the main features of CMC, as a type of interaction it is thus perfectly suited to young people’s everyday life and represents the communication mode of our times, making it – among others the vehicle for globalization with the last implying its innate “openness”. In itself, the Ιnternet extends the scope of human inter- action. In spite of all the technological advances, human personal and social needs including the sharing of ideas and emotions, seeking and receiving social support, pursuing intimacy or friendship, remain unchanged (Douglas et al., 2008; Ridings & Gefen, 2004) however increasing social multiplicity stands in the way of these needs being met. In an extensive review Joinson (2003) presents studies that predominantly support the positive role of the Internet in fulfilling these needs proclaiming the Internet as the most useful means of our times. The European Journal of Counselling Psychology ejcop.psychopen.eu | 2195-7614