Me, My Smartphone, and I: Development of the Smartphone Orientation Scale (SOS)

ABSTRACT

The smartphone has become an integral part of modern life. Many people cannot imagine a life without their smartphone. The sole focus of this research is to create and validate a measure of smartphone orientation to reflect individuals’ interactions with their smartphones as a part of their everyday lifestyle. Presently, the literature offers a variety of smartphone addiction scales of which many suffer from inadequate assessment of the scale’s reliability, validity, theoretical underpinnings, and most scales have too many items. Additionally, research suggests that several of these scales are only weakly associated with actual smartphone use. Across three studies and 867 respondents, a rigorous process was undertaken to create and validate the Smartphone Orientation Scale (SOS). Study 1 involved defining smartphone orientation, creating the scale items, and using a survey of 288 US adults to assess the scale’s psychometric properties and nomological validity; scale analysis resulted in an 8-item SOS scale which exhibits both convergent and discriminant validity. Study 2 surveyed 163 undergraduates to further assess the validity of the SOS; results provide evidence of discriminant, convergent, and nomological validity. Study 3 utilized a survey of 416 undergraduates and found that the SOS was positively associated with social media usage, social media intensity, and actual smartphone use. Overall, the above research offers a valid, 8-item scale that can be used to measure the intensity of an individual’s smartphone orientation. Recent research shows that how we relate to our technology impacts our well-being. Future research directions and study limitations are also discussed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James A. Roberts

James A. Roberts is the Ben H. Williams Professor of Marketing at Baylor University. He has approximately 85 articles published in numerous journals including Computers in Human Behavior, the Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Psychology & Marketing, and many others.

Meredith E. David

Meredith E. David is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Baylor University. Her research focuses on consumer behavior and well-being and appears in numerous journals including the Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, and Psychology & Marketing, among others.