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Social Media Burnout: Definition, Measurement Instrument, and Why We Care

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Abstract

Social media users have shown several symptoms of burnout lately. In this research, we study the burnout issue from three perspectives, including a user’s ambivalence, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization. Building on the Maslach Burnout Inventory, we designed a new scale to measure a user’s social media burnout. Using continuance as an example, we investigated the effects of social media burnout on a user’s post-adoption intention. We find that all three burnout factors (i.e., ambivalence, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization) can significantly negatively influence a social media user’s continuance.
Social Media Burnout Measurement Scale Inventory
Recommended Citation
Bo Han “Social Media Burnout: Definition, Measurement Instrument, and Why We Care”,
Journal of Computer Information Systems, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/08874417.2016.1208064
Abstract
Social media users have shown several symptoms of burnout lately. In this research, we study the
burnout issue from three perspectives, including a user’s ambivalence, emotional exhaustion, and
depersonalization. Building on the Maslach Burnout Inventory, we designed a new scale to
measure a user’s social media burnout. Using continuance as an example, we investigated the
effects of social media burnout on a user’s post-adoption intention. We find that all three burnout
factors (i.e., ambivalence, emotional exhaustion, and depersonalization) can significantly
negatively influence a social media user’s continuance.
Constructs
Ambivalence: The degree to which a user feels ambiguous about the favorable outcomes from
using social media.
Emotional Exhaustion: The degree to which a user feels exhausted when using social media.
Depersonalization: The degree to which a user feels emotionally detached from social media.
Measurement Scales
Construct Questionnaire Items
Ambivalence (AMB)
AMB1: I don’t know why I’m using Facebook.
AMB2: I don’t know what benefits I can get from using
Facebook.
AMB3: I don’t know if using Facebook is worth my time.
AMB4: I don’t know if using Facebook is worth my efforts.
Emotional Exhaustion
(EXH)
EXH1: I feel exhausted by using Facebook.
EXH2: I wasted too much time on Facebook.
EXH3: Using Facebook puts too much stress on me.
Depersonalization
(DEP)
DEP1: I don’t really care what happens on Facebook.
DEP2: I want to get away from Facebook.
DEP3: Facebook doesn’t matter to me.
DEP4: If I could, I would stay away from Facebook.
The questionnaire was rated on a 7-point Likert style scale from “1=Strongly Agree” to
“7=Strongly Disagree”.
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