Active and passive behavior in social media: Validating the Social Media Activity Questionnaire (SMAQ)

The aim of this study was to develop a behavioral report to assess Social Media Use (SMU) distinguishing between rather active and rather passive uses, namely the Social Media Activity Questionnaire (SMAQ). We recruited 1230 participants (963 females) testing its goodness-of-fit. Both the exploratory and the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor-structure of the SMAQ. Internal consistency analyses indicated a high level of reliability for both scales. Furthermore, the results represent evidence of convergent and discriminant validity of the SMAQ scales. The results indicated that Facebook Activity as well as symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress were more closely linked to active than to passive SMU. In contrast, social comparison orientation, social media flow experience, social media addiction, fear of missing out, and the social media intensity were more closely linked to passive use than to active use. Thus, the SMAQ represents a straightforward, profound, economical, standardized, valid and reliable measure of SMU. Finally, applications of the SMAQ scales are discussed and limitations of the study are outlined.