Escapist Internet Usage Motivation

What it measures

Assesses motivations for going online that reflect a desire to escape from problems, alleviate boredom, relax, and connect with like-minded others. Administered as part of a large-scale survey of retail customers (n=1,249), capturing uses-and-gratifications style reasons for internet engagement. Items span passive escapes (tuning out, relaxing, forgetting problems) and social connection motivations (chatting, making friends). Conceptually related to Korgaonkar and Wolin's (1999) web usage typology, though items were independently created.

Response format

5-point frequency scale (1=never, 5=very often)

Scale items

• To keep yourself company?
• To get advice to help solve your daily problems?
• To forget about your problems?
• To tune out what's going on around you?
• To relax yourself?
• To chat with people who share the same interest on the network?
• To make friends with people who share the same interest on the network?
• To keep yourself from being bored?

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Response scale asks likelihood of using internet for each reason (never to very often). Blends escape/avoidance items with social connection items; researchers may wish to examine sub-facets. Scale is frequency-based, not agreement-based.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R., & Kannan, P.K. (2016). From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of Marketing, 80(1), 7–25.

Keywords