In a previous post, I referenced the explosive growth in Tik Tok, a social media platform popular with adolescents and young adults, which is expected to grow to 900 million users by 2024. WeChat, a popular messaging app in China, now boasts 1.2 billion users (statista.com). Social media apps show no signs of slowing down in acquiring new users, and this may be driven by the need to “be in the know” about what is happening in the lives of other people.
The study I review below focused on “fear of missing out,” or FOMO. We typically think of adolescents experiencing FOMO, but it is commonly observed in adults as well. FOMO is defined as “a diffuse compound emotion dominated by anxiety and accompanied by negative feelings such as fear, loss, worry and depression resulting from fear of missing some possible important information or novel activities” (p. 274). Due to the many exaggerations presented by social media users, FOMO is increased because of social comparison. “Look how beautiful and perfect these people are, if only I was fill in the blank (better looking, smarter, richer, more popular, etc.), then I would have a perfect life/family/job, too!” FOMO can lead not only to painful social comparisons, it can reduce a person’s time available for more meaningful in-person activities including work and family responsibilities.
The authors of this study wanted to explore two competing theories of social media use and FOMO. Is there a linear relationship between social media use and FOMO (social cognitive theory of mass communication) in which increasing social media use leads to more FOMO? Or, does the “digital goldilocks hypothesis” make more sense? This hypothesis posits that there is a U-shaped relationship between social media use and FOMO. It states that FOMO will be greater for those who rarely use and for those who frequently use social media. Users with only moderate social media interactions will experience less FOMO, according to this theory.
The researchers were also interested the effects of gender, age, individualism vs collectivism, social media addiction, and social media platform on the relationships between social media use and FOMO.
The meta-analysis included 65 studies published between 2013-2020, total combined sample size was 61,893 participants. A correlation of .38 (moderate) was found between FOMO and social media use. This connection was even stronger than the connection between social media use and depression and loneliness observed in other studies.
Is there a linear relationship between social media use and FOMO? Their results indicated it is a linear (supporting social cognitive theory) rather than a U-shaped (discounting digital goldilocks theory) relationship between these two variables. In fact, social media addiction was correlated with FOMO (.47 correlation). Therefore, the more a person uses social media, the more likely they will experience FOMO. The authors explained: “social media’s self-presentation and real-time updates increase the perception of unknown events…individuals can see more exciting events and experiences that they haven’t engaged in and this leads to feelings of exclusion” (p. 282).
The extensive literature on the realities of social media addiction have documented the “missed moments” of in-person experiences that can occur when people are addicted to the pseudo-experiences presented in online platforms. This study reinforced prior findings about social media addiction and FOMO.
Social media platform was found to be a significant moderator between social media use and FOMO. Instagram had the strongest relationship to FOMO, followed by Facebook and Snapchat. The unique features of these platforms likely explain this association.
Other findings included the lack of a significant relationship between social media use and FOMO based on gender, age, or culture (individualist vs collectivist).
In summary, this meta-analysis of 65 studies uncovered important data about the complicated relationship between social media use and fear of missing out. It is important to note that these analyses were correlations, meaning they cannot determine if there is a cause-effect link between the variables.
Zhang, Y., Li, S., & Yu, G. (2021). The relationship between social media use and fear of missing out: A meta-analysis. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 53(3), 273. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2021.00273
© Jennie Dilworth, Ph.D