Fear of Missing out

FoMO (Fear of Missing Out) is a fear of missing out which is defined as the desire to
continue to be connected to other people's activities. Fear of Missing Out is increasingly
receiving scientific attention, among its characteristics are the fear of missing out on pleasant
experiences felt by other people, having a strong urge to know other people's movements, and
frequently checking cell phones.

Someone who has a high level of FoMo is at risk of experiencing problematic behavior
such as cell phone addiction, social media problems, and phubbing (insulting a partner by using
the phone). FoMo is also associated with internal problems within the individual such as sleep
disorders, dissatisfaction with life, decreased well-being, anxiety. , and depression. Therefore
understanding the psychological mechanisms that create FoMo has become an important focus for
research into digital health.

So the question is which generation group often experiences FoMo? Whether in

adolescence when they are close to gadgets and social media, or in early adulthood, at that age
someone will try and explore new things that they want to do. Or does FoMo often occur in
women compared to men? It turns out that FoMo is not solely limited to teenagers, early adults,
or gender, but can be experienced by individuals of all ages, groups and various backgrounds
(Barry & Wong 2020).

Intense use of social media by people of all age groups and professions is observed to
have the potential to encourage individuals to engage in FoMo. In this regard, as the research
progressed, the two main categories of social media activity were identified as (ASMU) active
social media) and passive social media use (PSMU). ASMU is defined as activities that
encourage direct communication with others, including such behavior. such as posting, sharing
links, commenting on updates, and starting chats with friends. PSMU refers to behavior that lacks
communicative interaction, such as simply searching for information.

ASMU has different effects on different aspects of FoMO. On the one hand, ASMU is
conductive to the alleviation of FoMO-traits. However, it is important to note that ASMU can also
predict higher FoMO states, which increases the potential for the FoMO trait to occur.
Additionally, PSMU attenuated the negative predictive effect of ASMU on trait-FoMO.
Therefore, reducing passive and non-communicative information seeking would be conducive to
the alleviation of FoMO-trait by ASMU.
 One of the personality indicators that most influences Fear of Missing out is neuroticism.
Neuroticism was found to be very close to the use of social media and problems in cyberspace.
Neoraticism can develop social interactions using social media, but neuroticism is related to
anxiety and fear of missing out as an expression of anxiety in the context offer the line
interactions, and a fear of not being socially excluded.

Neuroticism is also associated with fulfilling basic needs, specifically in

interpersonal relationships in cyberspace. An example of satisfaction of basic needs is found
as what is most sought after by individuals and has the potential to cause a fear of missing
out is the need for connectedness (Beyens et al., 2016; Przybylski et al., 2013). This is why
it is not surprising that such individuals are increasingly worried about missing out on
information related to the interesting experiences of their peers on social media. These
individuals feel left out and their need for connectedness is not met, thus becoming more
intensely involved in the fear of missing out.

It is not surprising that individuals are increasingly worried about missing out on
information related to interesting experiences on social media, individuals will feel left out
and feel their need for connectedness is not being met, so they are more intensely involved in
the fear of missing out. Several studies have targeted fear of missing out as an outcome and
consequence related to social media misuse. Thus, neuroticism is an internal variable like
personality that is a precursor to the fear of missing out.