Literature Review: Social Media Usage and Fear of Missing Out
Social Media Usage and Fear of Missing Out
Gosain and Yadav (2020) investigate the impact of social media usage (SMU) and the fear of missing out (FOMO) among youth. To achieve this, Gosain and Yadav assessed the difference between adolescents and young adults in relation to SMU and FOMO, the effects of social media usage among adolescents, the effects of social media usage among young adults, the effect of FOMO among adolescents, as well as the effect of FOMO among young adults. There are two hypotheses for their study:
· H1: There will be a significant level of difference between youngsters on FOMO (p. 78).
· H2: There will be a significant level of difference between youngsters on usage of social media (p. 78).
In some research experiments, there is a dependent variable, which gets tested and measured in an empirical study or scientific experiment; there is also an independent variable, which is controlled in a scientific experiment to test the effects on the dependent variable (Gosain & Yadav, 2020). In this particular study, three variables were being measured, two of them being dependent: FOMO and social media usage. The independent variable is the age of adolescents (13–17 years) and young adults (18–25 years). To study independent variables such as age group, social media usage, and fear of missing out, a total sample of 100 students from different age groups was taken, resulting in 50 school-aged students (13 to 17 years old) and 50 college-aged students (18 to 25 years old). All the participants were selected using the “FOMO tool” (Przybylski et.al., 2013). Both male and female participants were selected through a purposive sampling technique, and they were asked to identify their social media usage using two open-ended questions: i) Everyday time spent on social media networking websites (in hours) and ii) Day by day recurrence of visiting internet-based profiles.
Gosain and Yadav’s (2020) study utilizes quantitative research methods and was conducted at both high school school and university level. Other questions asked of the participants include: “are you on more than two social networking sites?” which they confirmed; “Usually you use social media for professional, educational or business purposes?” which more than 90% of the participants denied; and “which one is more satisfying either playing games online like PubG or preferring to play outdoor games?” more than 85% of the participants from both age groups answered that they spent hours playing games online, to which they prefer over any other outdoor game (p. 80). To organize and interpret the data obtained, statistical techniques such as mean, SDs, and t-tests were utilized. A survey was also carried out to find out the degree of FOMO and social media addiction faced by youth, using a questionnaire and interview plan to collect data for the study. It contained 10 close-ended questions related to FOMO and two questions related to social media usage, a few general questions related to both the variables were also asked for the interview schedule.
In concluding the study, it was found that everyday time spent on social media networking websites was substantially different for adolescents from that of young adults (Gosain & Yadav, 2020, p. 82). Thirty-two percent of adolescents spent 1–3 hours on social media daily, 34% of them spent 4–6 hours, and 34% of them spent 7 hours and more. Thirty-two percent of young adult participants also spent 1–3 hours on social media daily, 60% spent 4–6 hours, and only 8% of them responded that they spent more than seven hours. In response to the question of “day-by-day recurrence of visiting internet based profiles”, adolescents responded that 26% of them visit social media profiles 3–5 times daily, 16% visited them 6–10 times and 58% of them visit social media profiles 11–20 times daily. Young adults’ percentages differed from that of adolescents in terms of frequency of visiting social media platforms, as 36% of them responded that they visit their social media sites 3–5 times daily, 36% about 6–10 times a day, and only 28% responded that they visit social media profiles 11–20 times daily (Gosain & Yadav, 2020, p. 83). This indicated that adolescents are more dependent or addicted to social media usage.
Gosain and Yadav’s research is relevant to the current research study, as it seeks to understand the rise of youth’s engagement in social media, using a concept called fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is an example of a social psychological process which has been associated with excessive usage of social media platforms. The current study uses a comparative analysis to highlight the understanding of social media usage and FOMO among adolescents and young adults, and thus proves that there is a significant difference between youth social media usage and FOMO.
