The expression FOMO, fear of missing out, was added to the Oxford dictionary in 2013, and since then it has recieved over 3,000,000 hits on google (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020). #FOMO has been used over 200 times on Facebook and Instagram, which reaches approximately 100,000 people in a single day, highlighting how fast these posts circulate (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020). However, this present-day psychological phenomenon is generally unrecognized by the public, and highly unresearched.
FOMO is the fear that others may be participating in rewarding experiences from which one is absent (Przybylski et al., 2013). Recent research has shown that people with FOMO begin to value their experiences less, and may even endure the feeling of FOMO during highly enjoyable experiences (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020). At first, this phenomenon may not appear to be a big issue, however, it has been linked to decreased life satisfaction and a higher frequency of negative moods (Przybylski et al., 2013).
Emerging research on FOMO is focused on university-aged students, who are most at risk of experiencing this phenomenon (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020). Several studies have shown that this phenomenon is common amongst university students and is more likely to occur when studying (Hayran, Anik and Gürhan-Canli, 2020; Milyavskaya et al., 2021). A study using university students found that an individual’s studying is affected by knowledge of other activities occurring in their environment, and FOMO tends to occur more frequently in later days of the week, as shown in Figure 1 (Milyavskaya et al., 2021). This leads to nagging thoughts and anxiety that one is missing out on fun and exciting experiences (Milyavskaya et al., 2021). These frequent experiences of FOMO in university students have been linked to increased levels of stress (Milyavskaya et al., 2021). High levels of stress cause an increase in cortisol, which is a stress hormone that is excreted from the brain (Kandhalu, 2013). Cortisol changes the electrical activity in the nervous system, causing decreased rapid eye movement (REM) sleep (Kandhalu, 2013). High levels of cortisol have the potential to cause insomnia and severe mood swings (Kandhalu, 2013). Therefore, we must further the psychological research on FOMO.
Figure 1: The proportion of time FOMO is experienced throughout the time and day of the week (Milyavskaya et al., 2021). This shows that the frequency of FOMO experiences is higher in later days of the week (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday).
Social media accounts allow oneself to continually stay connected to the lives of those surrounding them. Therefore, another main concept that has been explored concerning FOMO is the use of social media. A study focusing on the association between FOMO and gravitation toward social media found results suggesting a positive correlation (Przybylski et al., 2013). Students reported to have frequent experiences of FOMO were more likely to check their social media accounts during university lectures. Another study analyzing this relation suggests that gravitation toward social media occurs from a deficit in psychological need (Beyens, Frison and Eggermont, 2016). Having this deficit increases a student’s sensitivity to FOMO, driving them toward social media, which acts as a self-regulation tool to satisfy this need (Beyens, Frison and Eggermont, 2016).
Overall, FOMO is becoming a more prevalent psychological phenomenon. While little research has been conducted in this field, FOMO among university-aged students is identified as a present-day issue. Evidence shows a negative association between frequent FOMO experiences and stress levels, which can have negative health outcomes. In addition, FOMO is linked to greater gravitation toward social media usage. Further research should be conducted to shed light on why, when, and how this psychological phenomenon is occurring.
Literature Cited
Beyens, I., Frison, E. and Eggermont, S., 2016. “I don’t want to miss a thing”: Adolescents’ fear of missing out and its relationship to adolescents’ social needs, Facebook use, and Facebook related stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, pp.1–8.
Hayran, C., Anik, L. and Gürhan-Canli, Z., 2020. A threat to loyalty: Fear of missing out (FOMO) leads to reluctance to repeat current experiences. PLOS ONE, 15(4), p.e0232318.
Milyavskaya, M., Saffran, M., Hope, N. and Koestner, R., 2021. Fear of missing out: prevalence, dynamics, and consequences of experiencing FOMO | SpringerLink. [online] Available at: <https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11031-018-9683-5> [Accessed 27 Feb. 2021].
Kandhalu, P., 2013. Effects of cortisol on physical and psychological aspects of the body and effective ways by which one can reduce stress. Berkeley Scientific Journal, 18(1), pp.14-16
Przybylski, A.K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C.R. and Gladwell, V., 2013. Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), pp.1841–1848.
Comments
13 Responses to “The New #FOMO Trend”
Hi everyone,
I hope you enjoyed reading my blog post. After briefly learning about the concept of FOMO in a psychology life science lecture two weeks ago I was inspired to delve deeper into this concept. There are many different perspectives on how and why FOMO occurs, including biological perspectives. However, I decided to focus on the psychological reasoning behind this phenomenon.
Emma
Hi Emma,
Thank you for a great read! It definitely is an interesting topic.
When reading I found the stat about over 200 posts have used FOMO on Facebook and Instagram interesting, as I would have thought there would have been more posts with the hashtag, so I took a quick look at your reference. I think what Hayran et al. were trying to say is that they tracked over 200 posts that used #FOMO. They found that in totality, these 200 posts that they monitored reached more than 100, 000 people in one day. Perhaps rewording the sentence to read ‘ one study tracked 200 posts on Facebook and Instagram that used #FOMO, they found that these posts reached more than 100,000 people in a single day, highlighting how fast these posts circulate”
Anyways, Just some food for thought!
Happy editing,
Bronwyn
Hi Bronwyn,
Thank you for your suggestions. I agree that placing more emphasis on fast these posts circulate is a great addition to the sentence, and I have integrated this into my final post.
Emma
Hi Emma!
I have a few small suggestions. First, in your second paragraph saying “enduring rewarding experiences” sounds awkward. I think endure typically refers to undergoing something difficult, so saying people are enduring something rewarding sounds off. In your third paragraph I would reword the first sentence to something like “Emerging research on FOMO is focused on university-aged students, who are most at risk of experiencing this phenomenon”. Last, in your figure caption, if the figure is from the Milyavskaya et al. (2021) reference, be sure to indicate the page number it can be found on in the in-text citation.
As a last comment I would say to just look over your post for the proper use of one’s self and oneself. I think there are some instance where it should be oneself, as what is being said is reflexive.
Overall, well done!
Grace
Hi Grace,
Thank you for your suggestions, they were very helpful. I really liked the rewording of the sentence you proposed, and have integrated this, along with the other comments into my final post.
Emma
Hi Emma,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. It gives such good and valuable insight on what we are currently learning in life science. Here are a few suggestions I had while reading:
– ‘fear of missing out’ in the first sentence of the first paragraph, and the first sentence in the second paragraph ‘FOMO is the fear that others may be enduring rewarding experiences from which one is absent’ refers to the same thing, so I would suggest combining these and putting it in the first paragraph.
– In the sentence “including increased fatigue and stress and decreased sleep”, since you are listing I recommend rewording it to “including increased fatigue, stress, and decreased sleep”
– “entered the Oxford dictionary in 2013” sounds a bit awkward, I would suggest rewording this sentence.
Overall great post! Looking forward to your final piece.
Best of luck,
Muneeza
Hi Muneeza,
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed reading my post. Thank you for your suggestions, I will take them into consideration when editing my final post. In regards to the first comment, I use the words ‘fear of missing out’ in the first paragraph to introduce my topic, and in the second sentence I explain the current definition of the phenomenon. I felt as though the introduction was not the right spot for the formal definition, and therefore included it in the second paragraph instead.
Emma
Hey Emma!!
I hope you are doing good and enjoying first year so far!! I was really interested right when I saw your blog because this used to be a big issue for me in high school. I was constantly worried about missing out on experiences, so I wanted to read more when I saw the title! I really enjoyed reading this and wanted to say great job! I had a few suggestions that I thought I would share!
– Since your first sentence is a statistic it should have an in-text citation with it, so that the reader knows where you got this information from.
– I would reword the first sentence of the second paragraph to something like “FOMO is the fear that others may be participating in a rewarding experience that they, themselves, are not a part of”, as I found it slightly hard to follow. This may just be my reading as well though 😉
– In the first sentence of the third paragraph, I would reword it to say “…students, who are at a greater risk.”
– In the third paragraph you say “university-aged students” a lot, this could maybe also be written as “university students” or just “students” as you continue into the paragraph to remove some of the repetition. You also use “one” many times throughout this paragraph, I would try to reword around this all together just for reading purposes.
– I really liked the paragraph after the figure! It was easy to follow and had a good direction. Great job!
– I would start the conclusion with “Overall,” instead of “All in all”
– Another suggestion I have for this blog in general is to include some of the brain science why they think FOMO may be happening. I know there is not a lot of research on it but I’m sure they mentioned some things in the studies you looked. Incorporating some biology or chemistry into this blog would be good alone with the psychology side!
Overall, great job Emma! I really liked the topic you chose and thought it was very interesting. I hope my suggestions are helpful
Happy editing,
Madie M
Hi Madie,
I am glad to hear that you enjoyed reading my post. Thank you for your suggestions, they were very helpful. I have integrated a majority of your comments into my final post. I really like your suggestion about adding a component of brain science into my post, and will look into whether there is supporting evidence in this field.
Thanks,
Emma
Hello,
Great blog post! This is a super interesting topic and definitely something that I have experienced before during university, especially while studying. I have some suggestions to help with the editing process:
– It sounds a little odd to say “entered” the dictionary; I would change this to “added to”.
– In your sentence that starts with #FOMO in the first paragraph, I don’t think the “the” in front is necessary. As a reader, it feels a little odd to read.
– I was slightly confused about your mention of 200 uses of the hashtag – this seems quite low. Also, when you mention it reaching 100,000 individuals, I wasn’t sure exactly what you meant.
– In your sentence about increased frequency of negative moods, you can remove the word more as I think this is redundant.
– Watch your use of commas and make sure you edit closely. I noticed a few spots where commas should be added or removed.
– When you mention FOMO being more present in later days of the week, I thought this was very interesting – it might be good to add in here the theories of why this happens.
Overall, great post and cool topic. Happy editing!
Ariana
Hi Ariana,
I am glad to hear you enjoyed reading my post. Thank you for your suggestions, they were very helpful. I haven integrated them into my post. In particular, I have added an extra section after discussing that the #FOMO reaches 100,000 individuals to hopefully highlight what this means and why it is important. In addition, I liked the suggestion you made in your final comment, and will try to expand on this concept.
Emma
Hi Emma,
Great job! Your blog post has very nice flow and structure throughout and you communicate the information in a very easy-to-follow way. I just have a few suggestions for your editing process:
1) Make sure to check over your post for sentences that require, but lack a citation. For example, the information in the first sentence of your post would most likely require a source, since it is not common knowledge
2) The wording of the last part of the third sentence in your third paragraph is a little ambiguous in terms of what you are referring to as occurring “more frequently in later days of the week”. It would increase the clarity and flow of the sentence to specify that you are referring to FOMO, since a few actions are mentioned simultaneously within this sentence. You could consider breaking the sentence into two, or adding “FOMO” between the words “and” and “tends to occur […]”
3) In the last sentence of the second last paragraph, you could consider rewording the sentence to: ” [Having] this deficit increases [a student’s] sensitivity to FOMO, driving them toward social media, which acts as a self-regulation tool to satisfy this need (Beyens, Frison and Eggermont, 2016).” in order to specify who “they” are, since this had not been stated for a few sentences before this one
4) If word count allows, you could consider adding in what the specific psychological needs are that draw some students to social media more than others when they are not met. That may help readers better understand this idea, and would be cool to know/discuss!
Overall, this was a great read and I hope these suggestions are helpful in your editing process!
Best,
Liz
Hi Elizabeth,
I am glad to hear you enjoyed reading my post. Thank you for your suggestions, they were very helpful and I have integrated most of them into my final post. I really liked the suggestion you made in your final comment, however with needing to add a couple other sections I do not think I will have the word space to incorporate this into my post.
Emma