Below is the Social Media Disorder Scale (SMD Scale) with my answers to each question in bold.
- Regularly found that you can’t think of anything else but
the moment you will be able to use social media again?
Yes/No (Preoccupation). NO - Regularly felt dissatisfied because you want to spend more
time on social media? Yes/No (Tolerance). NO - Often felt bad when you could not use social media?
Yes/No (Withdrawal). NO - Tried to spend less time on social media, but failed?
Yes/No (Persistence). NO - Regularly neglected other activities (i.e. hobbies, sports,
homework) because you wanted to use social media?
Yes/No (Displacement). NO - Regularly had arguments with others because of your
social media use? Yes/No (Problems). NO - Regularly led to your parents or friends about the amount
of time you spend on social media? Yes/No (Deception). NO - Often used social media to escape from negative feelings?
Yes/No (Escape). NO - Had serious conflict with parents, brother, sister (friends,
relationships etc.) because of your social media use?
Yes/No (Conflict). NO
I honestly said no to all of these as I am not a fan of social media. I don’t post on it and I don’t think its healthy at all for people to have this much intimate access into others lives. I think different usage patterns of social media can be found across the world due to cultural differences, technology access, government restrictions, etc… I do also think social media has turned into another type of serious addiction for people. Around the world it has turned into one of the most important thing to many people disconnecting them from actual life and the potential for real connections with those around them in the real world. Reading each item on the scale its actually makes me sad that many people probably say yes to many of the items. I also believe this type of addiction is just getting worse and worse as now generations are using technology from the first time they can remember literally growing up with it.