The Digital Media Overuse Scale (dMOS): A modular and extendible questionnaire for indexing digital media overuse.

Abstract

As digital media technology expands, so does the need for an instrument capable of measuring how human psychology interacts with it. The Digital Media Overuse Scale (dMOS) is a new instrument designed to index problematic overuse of digital media while remaining capable of adapting to changes in the digital media landscape as they emerge. The dMOS is modularly structured, meaning that each domain contains highly similar language reflecting behaviors and attitudes often observed in individuals reporting clinical issues or disorders related to digital media. Here the dMOS was used to investigate clinically relevant behaviors and attitudes as they relate to five digital media domains: general smartphone use, internet video consumption, social media use, gaming, and pornography use. Latent class analysis was conducted on data from 800 college-aged dMOS respondents. Latent class analysis revealed-two to three latent classes for each digital media domain, with notable differences. There was little indication of an overall "digital media overuse" profile, but instead, domain-specific patterns of overuse likely reflect design differences in technologies interacting with human psychology. Initial indications are that the dMOS is a reliable, valid, and extendible clinical instrument capable of providing clinically relevant scores within and across digital media domains. A manual for interpreting subject-level data from the dMOS is being produced, and replicative extensions of the questionnaire into new domains are underway.