Measures addictive use of social media across six addiction components adapted from Griffiths' (2005) components model of addiction. Salience captures whether social media has become the most important activity in one's life. Mood Modification captures using social media to escape problems or relieve negative mood. Tolerance captures the need to spend increasing time on social media to achieve the same effect. Withdrawal captures becoming restless or troubled when unable to use social media. Conflict captures interpersonal problems arising from social media use. Relapse captures returning to excessive use after attempts to cut down. Each item corresponds to one addiction component, making the BSMAS both brief and theoretically grounded. Social media addiction is associated with lower academic performance, poorer sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and reduced wellbeing — but its relationship with loneliness, narcissism, and fear of missing out is complex and bidirectional.
Likert (1–5, very rarely to very often)
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Score = mean (or sum). Cut-off score of 24 or above (out of 30) suggests problematic social media use, though clinical classification requires functional impairment. Freely available. Adapted from the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale (Andreassen et al., 2012, Psychological Reports) for all social media platforms. Should be used alongside wellbeing, depression, and loneliness measures for a comprehensive digital health battery.
Andreassen, C.S., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M.D. (2017). The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from a large national survey. Psychological Reports, 120(2), 328–334.
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