Q: 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?

A: According to the Social Media Disorder Scale, I scored a 3.0, which indicates that I do not have the formal diagnosis of a disordered social media user (a score of 5 indicates this fact). While I’m satisfied with the results of the test, I couldn’t help but notice how outlandish some of these questions seem, like “have you regularly found that you can’t think of anything else but the moment that you will be able to use social media again?” or “have you had serious conflict with your parents, brother(s) or sister(s) because of your social media use?”. While these questions personally don’t pertain to me, there are people in my life that that I personally feel some of these questions may apply to them the more I thought about it. With this thought in mind in addition to my results, it seems pretty clear to me that the different patterns of social media use may depend a lot on the culture that you’re raised in, or what beliefs and values you have either as an individual or as a result of being a part of a much larger group. For instance, my growing up step-sister got into social media at a much younger age then I did and seems to have a lot of these questions apply to her, both for the way that she was taught growing up and with the particular circle of friends that she primarily hung out with in school. Personally, I didn’t grow up with a lot of access to social media as a kid, and even when I eventually got social media and started using it, my knowledge and education with digital technology and cybersecurity prevented me from really getting into it as much as other people my age. Ultimately, the different scores and patterns from this scale greatly depend on the influences and ideals that a person grows up and lives with.