Introduction
Facebook addiction is a specific form of Internet addiction in which a person is addicted to checking Facebook. Anyone travelling on public transportation can observe this phenomenon.
| See also the PsyToolkit implementation of the Problematic Internet Use Questionnaire. |
The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is a very short questionnaire which can help to find out if you suffer from this. The scale was developed with a student sample at the University of Bergen in Norway.
According to the paper, there are two possible ways of determining whether someone is suffering from signs of Facebook addiction:
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Liberal judgement: Someone with at least 4 out of the 6 items scored as "sometimes (3)" or more often.
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Conservative judgement: Someone with all 6 out of the 6 items scored as "sometimes (3)" or more often.
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Legal stuff
It seems that the BFAS can be used for research, but you need to acknowledge the authors and their research paper when writing about it (Andreassen et al, 2012).
Technically
This is a basic scale question. Note that this has a Likert scale, but the scoring is somewhat unusual. The score for each item is 0 or 1, and the score used is the number of items on which a participant scores 1.
| My personal recommendation is to add a "never" option to the scale "frequency". |
The survey code for PsyToolkit
scale: frequency
- {score=0} very rarely
- {score=0} rarely
- {score=1} sometimes
- {score=1} often
- {score=1} very often
l: fbas
q: How often during the last year have you ...
o: random
o: width 50%
t: scale frequency
- spent a lot of time thinking about Facebook or planned use of Facebook?
- felt an urge to use Facebook more and more?
- used Facebook in order to forget about personal problems?
- tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success?
- become restless or troubled if you have been prohibited from using Facebook?
- used Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies?
l: score
t: set
- sum $fbas
l: feedback
t: info
q: You have {$score} items answered as "sometimes", "often", or "very often".<br><br>
A score between 4 and 6 can hint towards Facebook addiction.
References
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Andreassen, C.S., Torsheim, T., Brunborg, G.S., & Pallesen, S. (2010). Development of a Facebook addiction scale. Psychological Reports, 110, 2, 501-517.