Department of Psychology, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester, Hampshire, SO22 4NR, UK.
College of Business, Law and Social Sciences, University of Derby, Derby, UK.
Behav Res Methods. 2021 Jun;53(3):1097-1106. doi: 10.3758/s13428-020-01462-9.
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.
越来越多的自我报告措施旨在将社交媒体互动定义为一种病态行为框架,这些措施通常使用专注于识别那些“沉迷”于与他人在线互动的术语。具体来说,“社交媒体成瘾”的措施侧重于在线社交信息寻求的动机,这可能与线下社交信息寻求的动机有关。然而,这些相同的措施也可能揭示出一种普遍的朋友成瘾模式。本研究通过重新措辞高度引用的病理性社交媒体使用量表中的项目来开发离线朋友成瘾问卷 (O-FAQ),以反映“与朋友共度时光”。我们的验证方法遵循当前社交媒体“成瘾”量表开发的文献先例。O-FAQ 在 N = 807 的探索性样本中具有三因素解决方案,这些因素在 4 周的重测中是稳定的(r =.72 到.86),并与人格特质和风险行为在概念上合理的方向上进行了验证。使用与病理性社交媒体使用研究相同的多元分类技术,我们能够将 69%的样本归类为沉迷于与朋友共度时光。我们对讽刺性研究的讨论是对社交媒体研究中测量和人类社会性的作用的批判性反思。我们质疑将与他人联系起来视为“成瘾”的程度,并讨论在没有相关医学结构的情况下验证新的“成瘾”措施的问题。读者应该以对当前社交媒体成瘾措施的怀疑态度来对待我们的测量方法。
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