Development of an Offline-Friend Addiction Questionnaire (O-FAQ): Are most people really social addicts?

Liam Satchell, Dean Fido, Craig Harper, Heather Shaw, Brittany Davidson, David Ellis, Claire Hart, Rahul Jalil, Alice Jones Bartoli, Linda K. Kaye, Gary Lancaster, Melissa Pavetich

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Citations (SciVal)
81 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1097–1106
Number of pages10
JournalBehavior Research Methods
Volume53
Issue number3
Early online date24 Sept 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This project received no specific funding from internal or external bodies. Open practices statement

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Psychonomic Society, Inc.

Keywords

  • Measurement
  • Social addiction
  • Social information
  • Social media addiction
  • Social time
  • Validation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
  • Psychology (miscellaneous)
  • General Psychology

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