Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale

What it measures

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.

Representative items

• You have spent a lot of time thinking about social media or planning how to use it. (Salience)
• You have used social media in order to forget about personal problems. (Mood Modification)
• You have felt an urge to use social media more and more. (Tolerance)
• You have felt restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using social media. (Withdrawal)
• You have used social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies. (Conflict)

Citation

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.