Social Media Disorder Scale Score
Social Media Disorder Scale (SMD Scale) Please answer the question by thinking of your experience with using social media (e.g., WhatsApp, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, forums, weblogs) in the past year. Answer the questions as honestly as possible. According to DSM, at least five (out of the nine) criteria must be met for a formal diagnosis of “disordered social media user”. This is designed for personal insight and is not a substitute for professional diagnosis or advice. For each statement below, answer “Yes” or “No” based on your experiences over the past 12 months.
1. Preoccupation: – Do you frequently find yourself thinking about social media or planning to use it? Yes/No
2. Tolerance: – Have you felt dissatisfied because you want to spend more time on social media? Yes/No.
3. Withdrawal: – Do you feel restless, irritable, felt bad or upset when you are unable to use social media? Yes/No.
4. Persistence: – Have you tried to spend less time on social media, but failed? Yes/No.
5. Displacement: – Regularly neglected other activities (i.e. hobbies, sports, homework) because you wanted to use social media? Yes/No.
6. Problems: – Regularly had arguments with others because of your social media use? Yes/No.
7. Deception: – Regularly lied to your parents or friends about the amount of time you spend on social media? Yes/No.
8. Escape: – Do you use social media to forget about personal problems or to relieve negative feelings such as guilt or anxiety? Yes/No.
9. Conflict: – Had serious conflict with parents, brother, sister (friends, relationships etc.) because of your social media use? Yes/No.
Scoring • Count the number of “Yes” answers. • The scale involves summing the number of “Yes” answers; a score of 1 or lower indicates normative social media usage, 2-5 indicates risky usage, and 6-9 indicates problematic usage.
MY SCORE: 0
I scored a 0 on the Social Media Disorder Scale. I hardly ever use social media unless someone I know sends me something. To me, social media is a waste of time. It’s full of people trying to make themselves seem to have better lives than they do, or doing dumb trends that can be either dangerous, or just plain stupid. Not all of it is bad, but for me, the amount of negativity that can come from social media well outweighs any potential positives. The scale itself had a lot of very good questions, and I couldn’t ever see myself relying that heavily on social media. I think a lot of people use social media to get some form of validation even if most of it is from strangers who don’t really know or care about them. To me, that kind of validation is somewhat meaningless, unless it can somehow impact someone’s life in more ways than just saying “I have 10 million followers.”
Citation
van den Eijnden, R. J. J. M., Lemmens, J. S., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2016). The Social Media Disorder Scale. Computers in Human Behavior, 61, 478–487.