Prompt: 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?

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I scored a 0/9 on the Social Media Disorder (SMD) scale. The primary reason for this score is likely that I barely use social media, and when I do, it is mostly passive use. Currently, the only social media websites I regularly use are YouTube, Reddit, and LinkedIn. I view Reddit and YouTube mainly as sources of entertainment and information, and their use is restricted to my time off when I would not otherwise be doing anything productive. LinkedIn is a tool to network with potential employers and advance my career goals. In other words, social media is not a major part of my life, and I do not rely on it for social interaction and validation. As a result, my social media use presents little opportunity for the issues addressed in the SMD scale to arise. 

I believe the questions on the SMD scale are well designed because they are simple to answer and focus on aspects of social media use that are disruptive to a person’s daily life. As a result, the SMD scale does not waste any of its questions on aspects that are not problematic, meaning that one will not score highly if one engages in controlled, healthy social media use. Cultural differences and the availability of technology likely influence the differences in social media use globally. If technology is not widely available, it will be less intertwined with a culture’s social circles. As a result, social media will not be as impactful in the day-to-day lives of people in that culture, thus causing them to have different behavioral patterns and less of the negative consequences social media can facilitate.