I scored two out of nine on the Social Media Disorder (SMD) scale, which does not qualify me for the formal diagnosis of “disordered social media user.” This scale is a good measure of an individual’s relationship with social media; the questions cover a broad spectrum of emotions in a relatively short survey, reducing the risk of survey fatigue. I like that the items on the scale force the respondent to look inside and evaluate their relationship with social media to answer the questions.

I think that different patterns of answers to the SMD scale are found across the world because different cultures have different attitudes toward social media. For example, cultures that have a stronger emphasis on education and work ethic may discourage the use of social media, helping individuals to have a healthier relationship with it than in cultures that do little to monitor social media usage.