Assignment Description: “Watch this Video: Social media and cybersecurity 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?”

I scored a 2/9 on the Social Media Disorder Scale. I think that the scale does a good job at forcing someone to reevaluate how much time and energy they put into social media and technology as a whole. Additionally, it made me personally think more about how much I use social media, and technology as a whole, as a procrastination excuse or behavior when I don’t have any pressing deadlines. Some of the items on the list, such as problems, deception, and conflict surprised me at first before I realized that they, like the withdrawal item, are typical symptoms of addiction and the dopamine rush of social media can make it an easily addicting activity. I think a major reason why different social media disorder patterns are found around the world is the difference between individualist and collectivist cultures. Individualist cultures, like the United States, encourage self-interested behaviors that can increase the amount of time a person spends on social media trying to get more followers and likes because it can fit into the culturally defined idea of success, then becoming more likely to have problems with their social media use. Collectivist cultures meanwhile may see less social media use because their cultures are less likely to cause that want for attention online. The age and gender ratios of different countries can also have an effect on how many people use social media in problematic ways.