📲
📵 Digital Wellness
Are you addicted to social media?
Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale — the clinical test.
Rate how often each applies in the past year: 1 (never) to 5 (very often).
1I spend a lot of time thinking about social media or planning to use it.
2I feel an urge to use social media more and more.
3I use social media to forget about personal problems.
4I have tried to cut down on social media without success.
5I become restless or troubled if unable to use social media.
6I use social media so much that it has had a negative impact on my job or studies.
7I compare myself to others on social media and feel worse about myself.
8I check notifications immediately, even during important activities.
9I feel anxious if a post doesn't get likes or comments.
10I spend more time curating my online image than living my actual life.
The Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale
The Bergen Scale (Andreassen et al. 2012) maps onto 6 addiction criteria: salience, tolerance, mood modification, relapse, withdrawal, and conflict. Items 1-6 directly mirror these criteria.
Score interpretation
- 10-18: Normal use — social media is entertainment, not dependency
- 19-28: Average — you scroll more than you'd like
- 29-38: At risk — social media meaningfully affects your mood and productivity
- 39-50: Addicted — meets clinical addiction criteria
Research highlights
- Global average: 2 hours 23 minutes per day on social media (DataReportal 2024)
- Instagram use correlates with body dissatisfaction (r=0.28) in young adults (Fardouly et al. 2018)
- Social media addiction activates the same brain regions as substance addiction (He et al. 2017)
- Likes trigger dopamine: a single notification activates the nucleus accumbens
- 33% of 18-24 year olds say they're addicted to social media (Pew Research)
Sources: Andreassen et al. (2012, Bergen Scale), Fardouly et al. (2018), He et al. (2017, brain imaging), Pew Research Center.