A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to engaging with others online. Specifically, measures of ‘social media addiction’ focus on motivations for online social information seeking, which could relate to motivations for offline social information seeking. However, it could be the case that these same measures could reveal a pattern of friend addiction in general. This study develops the Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ) by re-wording items from highly cited pathological social media use scales to reflect “spending time with friends”. Our methodology for validation follows the current literature precedent in the development of social media ‘addiction’ scales. The O-FAQ had a three-factor solution in an exploratory sample of N = 807 and these factors were stable in a 4-week retest (r = .72 to .86) and was validated against personality traits, and risk-taking behavior, in conceptually plausible directions. Using the same polythetic classification techniques as pathological social media use studies, we were able to classify 69% of our sample as addicted to spending time with their friends. The discussion of our satirical research is a critical reflection on the role of measurement and human sociality in social media research. We question the extent to which connecting with others can be considered an ‘addiction’ and discuss issues concerning the validation of new ‘addiction’ measures without relevant medical constructs. Readers should approach our measure with a level of skepticism that should be afforded to current social media addiction measures.

La détox numérique promet de vous rendre votre liberté et d’améliorer votre santé mentale en vous forçant à stopper le scroll infini. Est-ce trop beau pour être vrai ?

PhD Project - GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP PhD project: Can young people’s cognitive style explain associations between social media use and mental health? at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

Research Associate/Research Fellow in Digital Health - Fixed Term Contract

Across disciplines, research often relies on groups of people to participate in experiments or attend events at the same time. Typically, researchers try to maximize attendance by manually identifying...

A growing number of self-report measures aim to define interactions with social media in a pathological behavior framework, often using terminology focused on identifying those who are ‘addicted’ to e...

Research on interpersonal relationships frequently relies on accurate self-reporting across various relationship facets (e.g., conflict, trust, appreciation). Y...

The guidance seeks to support members to present their qualifications and expertise correctly and with confidence.

The guidance seeks to support members to present their qualifications and expertise correctly and with confidence.

Back in 2005, the clamshell flip phone epitomized high-tech sophistication, allowing users to end calls with a swift snap. Fast forward to today, two decades

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Belated decision on widely disputed 2010 study pleases some critics but puzzles and dismays others

Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro