The FOMO Phenomenon: A Review of Psychological Factors

Description

Page: 438-442

Monika and Manju (Department of Applied Psychology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology, Hisar, Haryana)

Nowadays technology is an important part of our lives and the use of social media were is increasing day by day with the help of the internet and social networking sites people are connected with their family and friends, and they are aware of what they are doing at every movement of life and this leads psychological distress named as FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). “A pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski et al., 2013) called FOMO. FOMO is manifested by the following behaviors; ‘the fear that other people (including close friends) have more rewarding life experiences than me, the apprehension that my friends are having fun without me and that I will miss out on a planned or spontaneous event, the need to continuously check the activities undertaken by friends and to be up to date with their lives, the need for regular reporting of one’s activities, usually positive.’ The main objective of the present study is to highlight the psychosocial factors that can be the leading cause of FOMO. Literature has disclosed many factors that is; self-esteem, Loneliness, Anxiety, use of Social Networking Sites (SNS), and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are strongly associated with FOMO. Studies revealed that FOMO is negatively correlated with self-esteem, people with low self-esteem are more prone to develop FOMO (Weaver & Swank, 2021). SNS are positively associated with FOMO, people who use more SNS disclose higher scores on FOMO and internet addiction (Yin et al., 2021). Studies revealed that Loneliness is directly correlated with FOMO (Bernard, 2020). EI and FOMO are negatively associated, person with high emotional intelligence is less prone to FOMO (Kartol & Gündoğan, 2020). Anxiety is directly associated with FOMO, a person with a high score on anxiety and depression also indicates a high score on FOMO (Kacker & Saurav, 2020). FOMO was negatively associated with future time perspective (Sun et al., 2022). Studies show that FOMO is becoming more and more common as more and more research looks into this phenomena. This study suggests that it is essential to determine the reasons behind people’s overindulgence in social media and the ensuing effects on markers of well-being and functional impairments (like addiction).