Psychologists now say Facebook addiction is a real problem and it can now be measured. Researchers in Norway have come up with a new way to measure your obsession with Facebook and it’s called the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale. The new study was published in the April issue of the journal Psychological Reports. The research team tested over 400 students at the University of Bergen in Norway. The scale uses these six criteria to gauge your Facebook addiction:The amount of time you spend thinking about or planning to use FacebookIf you feel the urge to use Facebook over and overWhether you use Facebook to forget your personal problemsYou have unsuccessfully tried to cut down on your Facebook usageIf not allowed to use Facebook, you become bothered or restlessYou are on Facebook so often if negatively affects your job or school work. The students were asked to determine how each statement applied to them regarding their Facebook usage on a scale of one to five with one being very rarely and five being very often. Those who had poor sleeping habits also scored higher on the scale. Study author, Dr. Cecilie Schou Andreassen says the addiction and dependency occur more often with younger users rather than older ones. Andreassen also notes that people who have anxiety and are more socially insecure tend to use Facebook more often than those who scored lower with such traits. According to the Huffington Post, this is probably because anxious people communicate easier through social media outlets than they do face to face. Researchers from the University of Chicago believe social media can be even more addictive than having sex. Another study showed that 66 percent of online adults use some kind of social media such as Facebook or Twitter. Facebook has over 900 million users who are active on their site each month.Category: AddictionMay 18, 2012Tags: social mediaPost navigationPreviousPrevious post:New Phobia Emphasizes Role That Cellphones Play in Our LivesNextNext post:Another Product of Their EnvironmentRelated postsMoving Away From the Word “Addict”February 23, 2021New Year Recovery Resolutions 2021January 12, 2021Dialectal Behavior Therapy (DBT) & Substance Use Disorder TreatmentSeptember 29, 2020COVID-19 and the Link Between Mind and Body WellnessSeptember 15, 2020What is Polysubstance Abuse?July 28, 2020Dangers of Mixing SubstancesJuly 25, 2020