The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) is a six-item brief self-report scale designed to assess risky social media addiction. The BSMAS is an adaptation of the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale with a simple substitution of the term “Facebook” for “Social media”. The items reflect the basic elements of addiction:

Meaning – activity dominates thinking and behavior,
Mood modification – activity modifies mood
Tolerance – increasing the amount of activity is required to achieve the previous effects,
Withdrawal symptoms – occurrence of unpleasant sensations when activity is interrupted or suddenly reduced,
Conflict – activity causes conflicts in relationships, work/education and other activities,
Relapse – tendency to return to earlier patterns of activity after abstinence or control.

The BSMAS assesses problematic social media use behavior over a twelve-month period.

Length of filling

Filling out the entire questionnaire will take approximately 3 minutes.

Individualized feedback for the respondent

By filling out the scale, the proband finds out if he is affected by addiction to social networks.

Keywords

Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale, BSMAS, addiction, social networks, social media

Scoring and interpretation

The total score is obtained by summing the scores of all items and therefore ranges from 6-30 points, with higher scores indicating higher levels of problematic social media use and addiction.

Response scale

For each item, the respondent answers on a five-point Likert scale from “very rarely” (1) to “very often” (5).

References

Andreassen, C., Billieux, J., Griffiths, M., Kuss, D., Demetrovics, Z., Mazzoni, E., & Pallesen, S. (2016). The Relationship Between Addictive Use of Social Media and VideoGames and Symptoms of Psychiatric Disorders: A Large-ScaleCross-Sectional Study. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 30(2), 252-262. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/adb0000160252

Andreassen, C., Torsheim, T., Brunborg, G., & Pallesen, S. (2012). Development of a Facebook Addiction Scale. Psychological Reports, 110(2), 501-517. https://doi.org/10.2466/02.09.18.PR0.110.2.501-517

Duradoni, M., Innocenti, F., & Guazzini, A. (2020). Well-Being and Social Media: A Systematic Review of Bergen Addiction Scales. Future Internet, 12(24). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/fi12020024

Zarate, D., Hobson, B., March, E., Griffiths, M., & Stavropoulos, V. Psychometric properties of the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale: An analysis using item response theory. Addictive Behaviors Reports, 17(100473). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.abrep.2022.100473