Development and validation of the social media affordances scale (SMAS)

Abstract

Research in communication has used the notion of affordances and related concepts in explaining behaviours on social media platforms, yet users' perceptions of affordances are rarely assessed. The current study attempted to develop a unified measure to assess participants’ perceptions of affordances across social media platforms. Based on past literature, six affordances were identified: persistence, flexibility, accessibility, interactivity, connectivity and identifiability and a six-factor scale was developed. The resultant Social Media Affordances Scale (SMAS) includes 48 items. However, results revealed a three-factor structure associated with content gratification, social gratification and utilitarian gratification. Limitations, implications and future directions of the study are discussed.