Oftentimes, people suffering from social media addiction may have a feeling that their app use may not be healthy, but it can be difficult to know for sure, leading many to seek some kind of confirmation.
The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) was designed to help social media users understand when they may be struggling with symptoms of addiction.
The BSMAS presents the following six statements and asks the user to rate how often they experience it on a scale of 1-5 (with 1 being very rarely and 5 being very often):
You spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning how to use it
You feel an urge to use social media more and more
You use social media in order to forget about personal problems
You have tried to cut down on the use of social media without success
You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using social media
You use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies
Providing a score of 4 or 5 on at least four questions could indicate social media addiction.