Do you spend all your online time looking through your friends' pictures on Facebook? Do you feel twitchy every time you're away from the social media site? If you feel like you're too invested in your Facebook page then you might be actually be addicted to the social networking site. New research from the University of Bergen have suggested that Facebook addiction is very much real and have developed a scale to measure if a user is addicted to the popular networking site.

A research team led by Dr. Cecilie Schou Andreassen has developed the "Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale" in order to measure how addicted users are to Facebook. According to Andreassen Facebook addiction can be classified as "a subdivision of Internet addiction."

The researchers tested 423 students, comprised of 227 women and 196 men, and recorded their responses to the Bergen Facebook Addiction scale. The results showed that younger users are more at risk of addiction than older users. People who are anxious and socially insecure use Facebook more than people with lower scores on those traits. People who are organized and more ambitious are less at risk from Facebook addiction. Users who are night owls are more likely to end up addicted to the social networking site as those with a "delayed sleep wake rhythm" scored highly in the test. The researchers also found out that women are more at risk of addiction because of the social nature of Facebook.

The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale is based on six basic statements, where all items are scored on the following scale: (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very often. If you answer with a 4 or above for more of the following statements then you maybe addicted to Facebook.

  • You spend a lot of time thinking about Facebook or plan use of Facebook.
  • You feel an urge to use Facebook more and more.
  • You use Facebook in order to forget about personal problems.
  • You have tried to cut down on the use of Facebook without success.
  • You become restless or troubled if you are prohibited from using Facebook.
  • You use Facebook so much that it has had a negative impact on your job/studies.

The results of the study are published in the Psychological Reports journal.