Beyond time spent online: exploring functional motives, discourse-related self-appraisals, and social media addiction-like symptoms

Introduction Research has increasingly examined excessive social media (SM) use in relation to negative mental health outcomes, often conceptualized as SM “addiction” or “problematic use”, and assessed using self-report scales such as the Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS). While the BSMAS assesses self-reported addiction-like symptoms, scores may be associated not only with time spent using SM, but also with the functions SM serves and discourse-related self-appraisals through which individuals evaluate their own use. This exploratory pilot study examined these dimensions. Methods We developed two exploratory instruments assessing functional motives and discourse-related self-appraisals. A convenience sample of 291 SM users completed the BSMAS, SM use questions, and both instruments. Exploratory factor analyses, correlations and hierarchical regressions examined associations with BSMAS scores. Three sensitivity analyses examined potential conceptual overlap with BSMAS item content. Results The Functional SM Use Survey yielded five domains: emotional self-regulatory engagement and escapism, global wellbeing benefit, entertainment and stimulation-driven engagement, instrumental and goal-directed use, and social validation and self-presentation. The Discourse-Based Survey yielded three domains: socially driven self-judgment, warning-triggered self-appraisal, and perceived over-pathologization and normative dissent. Weekly SM use was significantly associated with BSMAS scores in Step 1 but no longer significant in the fully adjusted model. Emotional self-regulatory engagement and escapism (β = 0.438) and warning-triggered self-appraisal (β = 0.273) remained statistically significant; the model explained 49.8% of the variance. The socially driven self-judgment association weakened after removing overlapping items, whereas the warning-triggered self-appraisal association changed minimally after removal of the BSMAS work/study-impact item. This does not establish conceptual independence between warning-triggered self-appraisal and perceived problematic use. Removing the BSMAS mood-modification item attenuated, but did not eliminate, the emotional self-regulatory engagement and escapism association. Discussion BSMAS scores were associated with reported SM use, coping-oriented motives and discourse-related self-appraisals. Sensitivity findings indicate that some associations were attenuated after removing overlapping evaluative content, whereas others changed minimally after targeted item removal. These analyses do not establish conceptual independence among the measures. These exploratory findings indicate associations between self-reported addiction-like symptoms, SM motives and discourse-related self-appraisals, but the conceptual distinctiveness of the newly proposed domains requires independent validation.