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Social Media Use Scale (SMUS)

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C Published: 25 February 2023
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Scales (/CB/index.php/component/tags/tag/scales) Social Media Use Scale (SMUS) (/CB/index.php/component/tags/tag/social-media-use-scale-smus)

The Social Media Use Scale (SMUS) is a questionnaire used to measure individuals' social media use. The SMUS was developed by Lin, Wang, and Chen
(2016) based on the Uses and Gratifications theory (UGT) (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974). The UGT suggests that individuals choose to engage with
media to satisfy their needs and goals, such as entertainment, social interaction, and information seeking. The SMUS includes 22 items, divided into five
dimensions: social interaction, entertainment, information seeking, convenience, and social comparison.

The SMUS questionnaire is as follows:

1. Social interaction: How often do you use social media to communicate with others?
2. Social interaction (reverse scored): How often do you feel lonely and use social media to find companionship?
3. Entertainment: How often do you use social media for fun and relaxation?
4. Information seeking: How often do you use social media to search for news and information?
5. Convenience: How often do you use social media because it is easy and convenient?
6. Social comparison: How often do you use social media to compare yourself with others?
7. Social interaction: How often do you use social media to maintain existing relationships?
8. Entertainment (reverse scored): How often do you use social media to avoid boredom?
9. Information seeking (reverse scored): How often do you use social media as a primary source of information?
10. Convenience: How often do you use social media because it saves time?
11. Social comparison (reverse scored): How often do you feel inferior after comparing yourself to others on social media?
12. Social interaction: How often do you use social media to make new friends?
13. Entertainment: How often do you use social media to watch videos or view photos?
14. Information seeking: How often do you use social media to get advice or recommendations?
15. Convenience: How often do you use social media because it is accessible?
16. Social comparison: How often do you use social media to feel good about yourself?
17. Social interaction (reverse scored): How often do you use social media to avoid face-to-face communication?
18. Entertainment: How often do you use social media to play games?
19. Information seeking: How often do you use social media to learn new things?
20. Convenience: How often do you use social media because it is free?
21. Social comparison (reverse scored): How often do you feel jealous after comparing yourself to others on social media?
22. Social interaction: How often do you use social media to plan events with others?
Scoring rules: Each item is scored on a 5-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). To calculate the score for each dimension, the items
are summed and divided by the number of items in that dimension. The overall score is calculated by averaging the scores of all dimensions.
Reverse scored questions: Items 2, 8, 9, 11, 17, and 21 are reverse scored. This means that a higher score on these items indicates less social media use.

Criticism:
One criticism of the SMUS is that it may not capture the complex nature of social media use, as individuals may use social media for multiple reasons
simultaneously (van Uden-Kraan et al., 2018). Additionally, the SMUS focuses on individual motives for social media use, and may not account for social
and cultural factors that influence social media use (Livingstone, 2017). Finally, the SMUS may not be generalizable to all populations, as social media use
may vary across cultures and age groups (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010)

The SMUS consists of five sub-scales or dimensions, which are:

1. Social interaction: This sub-scale measures the extent to which individuals use social media to communicate with others, maintain existing
relationships, make new friends, and plan events with others.
2. Entertainment: This sub-scale measures the extent to which individuals use social media for fun and relaxation, to watch videos or view photos, and to
play games.
3. Information
seeking: This sub-scale measures the extent to which individuals use social media to search for news and information, get advice or
recommendations, and learn new things.
4. Convenience: This sub-scale measures the extent to which individuals use social media because it is easy, convenient, accessible, saves time, and
free.
5. Social comparison: This sub-scale measures the extent to which individuals use social media to compare themselves with others, feel good about
themselves, and feel jealous or inferior after comparing themselves with others.
Each sub-scale has multiple items that are used to calculate a score for that specific dimension. The overall score is calculated by averaging the scores of
all dimensions

References:
Katz, E., Blumler, J. G., & Gurevitch, M. (1974). Utilization of mass communication by the individual. In J. G. Blumler & E. Katz (Eds.), The uses of mass
communication: Current perspectives on gratifications research (pp. 19-32). Sage Publications.
Lin, L. Y., Wang, C. Y., & Chen, C. J. (2016). The effects of social media on college students. Journal of Educational Technology Development and
Exchange, 9(1), 1-14.
Kirschner, P. A., & Karpinski, A. C. (2010). Facebook® and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 26(6), 1237-1245.
Livingstone, S. (2017). Audiences, publics and public spheres. In S. C. Herring, L. A. Lievrouw, F. Martin, & L. S. Nakamura (Eds.), The handbook of
internet studies (pp. 215-233). Wiley-Blackwell.
van Uden-Kraan, C. F., Drossaert, C. H. C., Taal, E., Seydel, E. R., & van de Laar, M. A. F. J. (2018). Self-reported differences in empowerment between
lurkers and posters in online patient support groups. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 10(2), e18.

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