Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as Really Lived: Five Classifications and one Ecology

Abstract

Social media provides a platform for information sharing and dissemination and has speedily become a popular method for individuals to relate to others regardless of the time and geographical distance. However, this wealth of connectivity and availability of information may lead to the experience of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) that typically refers to a preoccupation of the users of social media about lost opportunities when they are offline or unable to connect and communicate as wished. Despite the recognition of the concept, studies around FoMO have used offline data collection techniques such as interviews, focus groups and surveys. This has led to a limited understanding of the lived FoMO experience and a rather simplified and coarse-grained view of the concept. In this paper, we delve into the specifics and nuances of FoMO through multi-stage qualitative research, including interviews, diary study and three focus group sessions and elaborate upon the concept and determine its various manifestations and classification. The lived experience is mainly gathered through a diary study. We present five main classifications characterising FoMO and develop an ecology for it.

Combating Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) on Social Media: The FoMO-R Method

“…Previous research [ 2 , 18 , 19 ] has identified five primary contexts of use where FoMO occurs, the fears associated with them and the potential technical countermeasures. The findings are summarised in Table 1 .…”

“…One such negative experience is the fear of missing out (FoMO). This typically refers to the preoccupation of users of social media with lost opportunities when they are offline or unable or unwilling to connect and communicate with others to the extent they wish [ 2 ]. Researchers have recently begun to explore the negative consequences of FoMO that are faced by social media users.…”

“…This introduces limitations due to the possibility of recall bias and questions about ecological validity. To mitigate such shortcomings, Alutaybi, et al [ 2 ] explored the lived experience of individuals who suffered FoMO and sought to understand the phenomena in a naturalistic setting. They utilised a diary study design as a data collection method in the exploration phase.…”

“…They utilised a diary study design as a data collection method in the exploration phase. These studies developed five primary contexts of use in which FoMO occurs and the specific fears in each context [ 2 ]. The same authors explored features of social media that could facilitate FoMO and, in addition, the existing and future social media features that alleviate FoMO [ 18 , 19 ].…”

“…It is hoped that this might build the users’ digital resilience and help them to prevent and deal with certain kinds of FoMO. We used the results of previous research in [ 2 , 18 , 19 ] to devise the main components of FoMO-R and added to them, particularly at the level of social countermeasures. We evaluate the potential of the method empirically through focus groups and a diary study involving 30 participants.…”