Complete the Social Media Disorder scale. How did you score? What do you think about the items in the scale? Why do you think that different patterns are found across the world?
During the past year, have you …
✗ • regularly found that you can’t think of anything else but the moment that you will be able to use
social media again?
✓ • regularly felt dissatisfied because you wanted to spend more time on social media?
✗ • often felt bad when you could not use social media?
✓ • tried to spend less time on social media, but failed?
✓ • regularly neglected other activities (e.g. hobbies, sport) because you wanted to use social media?
✗ • regularly had arguments with others because of your social media use?
✗ • regularly lied to your parents or friends about the amount of time you spend on social media?
✓ • often used social media to escape from negative feelings?
✗ • had serious conflict with your parents, brother(s) or sister(s) because of your social media use?
Above is the social media disorder scale, or questions to help decipher what level you are on that scale. I placed a check mark next to items I agreed with, and an X next to ones I didn’t. This gave me a score of 4 out of 9, roughly 50%. Honestly, I would agree with this score! I often find myself using social media or a social media platform to find entertainment, which would lead to me forgetting or actively avoiding hobbies because I wanted to keep doing what I was doing. As a child I practically grew up on the internet, so it’s not something I can easily forget about. Additionally, I moved half a country away from my family and close friends, so it’s the only way for me to stay in contact with all of them.
Personally, I can believe all of these items happen on the scale. Why? Because I’ve experienced them at least once in my life, just not in the past year. Even in the people around me, I see stuff like this happen everyday. People often can’t focus or refuse to do anything that isn’t in style or isn’t trending because of social media and the internet. The world has slowly developed into a hive mind, where people mindlessly listen to what social media has to say.
I believe different patterns are found all across the world because there are different cultures and people, and these individuals may view social media and the internet much differently. America is a privileged country that can take it’s time listening to and scrolling through social media, but there are other countries that aren’t as privileged and aren’t able to use social media freely. Additionally, different cultures and people view family and relationships much differently. While one group will spend time on social media while visiting family, another group may value the time spent together and refuse to touch their phones. All in all, it really just depends on the person who is using social media.