What are people's relationships with social media?

The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) is a 6-question measure of people's addictive tendencies towards social media. The question measure 1 variable: social media addiction. This survey can be used to explore relationships between social media addiction and variables like age, anxiety levels, or time spent online. Past research suggests that problematic social media use increased significantly in low-income countries over the past 7 years, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Silvia Casale et al., 2023).

Resources:

Andreassen, C. S., Torsheim, T., Brunborg, G. S., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a Facebook addiction scale. Psychological reports, 110(2), 501-517.

Silvia Casale, Mehdi Akbari, Mohammad Seydavi, Sara Bocci Benucci, Giulia Fioravanti. Has the prevalence of problematic social media use increased over the past seven years and since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic? A meta-analysis of the studies published since the development of the Bergen social media addiction scale. Addictive Behaviors, Volume 147, 2023. 107838, ISSN 0306-4603.

Parameters

• This survey cannot be tweaked.

Disclaimer
Any languages that are currently offered besides English for this survey are not necessarily validated translations. This survey was translated using Google Translate and verified by members of the community.

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:

• BSMAS_score: Higher scores mean participants have more addictive tendencies towards social media.
• BSMAS_CountItemsAboveThree: This is an additional way to measure social media addiction using these questions. Higher scores mean participants have more responses at or above a 3 on the Likert scale, indicating greater addictive tendencies.

Raw data: 6 questions combined into 1 variable (social media addiction). BSMAS_score ranges from 6-30. BSMAS_CountItemsAboveThree ranges from 0-6.

Calculation:
BSMAS_score is determined by adding the scores of the questions. The Likert scale ranges from 1 ("very rarely") to 5 ("very often"), so the sum of the scores will range from 6-30. BSMAS_CountItemsAboveThree is determined by adding up the number of questions where participants scored at or above a 3 on the Likert scale, so the sum of the questions will range from 0-6.

• BSMAS_score: Sum of questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
• BSMAS_CountItemsAboveThree: Adds the number of questions that participants rated three or above on the Likert scale