Time Perception Discrepancies on Instagram: Cognitive and Personality Predictors Among Iranian Users Analyzed with Neural Networks

Abstract

In 2024, we conducted a study involving 2128 Iranian participants to investigate the discrepancy between perceived and actual time spent on Instagram utilizing cognitive and personality predictors. Participants completed an online questionnaire measuring Executive Function (EF), Introversion/Extroversion, Neuroticism, Emotion Dysregulation, Age, and Sex. We focused on Time Discrepancy, defined as the difference between actual and estimated time spent on Instagram. Using a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) model, we achieved high accuracy with low Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Relative Error (RE%) values. Our findings highlight significant cognitive and psychological factors influencing social media usage perception, offering insights for interventions in digital environments