Adolescents & Social Media Use

This research explores the effects of social media use by adolescents. Five themes were identified: [1] social media and adolescent mental and physical well-being, [2] social media and adolescent problematic usage, [3] social media and adolescent academics, [4] social media and adolescent family connections, and [5] social media benefits for adolescents. The paper goes on to analyze how practices at the Middle School where I teach could be aligned with research and then questions implications for future research and transformed practice

Do Fear of Missing-out Mediated by Social Media Addiction Influence Academic Motivation Among Emerging Adulthood?

Abstract The aim of this research was to examine the relationship between fear of missing out and academic motivation mediated by social media addiction among emerging adulthood. The participants involved in this research were 18 to 25 years emerging adulthood, who live in Special Region of Yogyakarta. They were active internet users and have used the internet for more than 6 months. Furthermore, they were students in both high school and university. The hypothesis proposed in this study was that there is a relationship between fear of missing out and academic motivation mediated by social media addiction. The results showed that the hypothesis was correct. This implies that the fear of missing out is negatively correlated with academic motivation mediated by social media addiction. However, it was discovered that there was a positive correlation between fear of missing out and social media addiction. There was also a negative correlation between social media addiction and academic motivation.Keywords: social media addiction, fear of missing out, academic motivation, emerging adulthoo

The Fear of Missing Out Phenomenon and Belongingness in Secondary Students

In the networks of student lives and the pervasive presence of social media in their lives, there is an increasingly important need to understand the dynamics that affect students’ well being and availability to being present with learning. This qualitative study sought to understand how FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent” (Przybylski et. al, 2013, p. 1841), impacts students of color at one independent secondary school in Northern California and has been documented as having an impact on learning, health, and safety. The researcher conducted personal interviews with six students of color in grades seven and eight, under the design of a constructivist worldview. This research found that students had surprising grassroots systems of support largely disconnected from social media, and that when technology was involved, it was more often through real time gameplay as compared to social networking sites. Implications of this study include schools and teachers taking the lead in implementing steps to foster community building and student belongingness, such as allowing time for students to talk and connect before classes, during class, and through a varied weekly schedule. Creating opportunities for small group interactions could include advisory groups as well as purposefully working to connect as a school community and within the surrounding community, perhaps through service and volunteer days. Additionally, schools can work alongside policy makers to enlist social media sites to fund research and inform users of signs and steps to take if experiencing extreme FOMO and social media use

Examining the Relationship Between Social Anxiety and Social Media Engagement

The relationship between social anxiety and social media has been studied looking at social networking sites as a whole, or looking at problematic use of social networking sites. However, to the authors knowledge, no research study has been conducted comparing different social media sites. This study intended to look specifically at the relationship between social anxiety and Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat in college students. Furthermore, this study assessed fear of negative evaluation, fear of positive evaluation, fear of missing out, and social comparison as potential meditators of this relationship. It was hypothesized that there would be a relationship between social anxiety and Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, and that fear of negative evaluation, fear of positive evaluation, fear of missing out, and social comparison would mediate this relationship. Baron and Kenny tests of mediation results found that fear of missing out and fear of negative evaluation both partially mediated the relationship between social anxiety and Facebook connection. Additionally, results demonstrated that fear of missing out, fear of negative evaluation, and social comparison partially mediated the relationship between social anxiety and Snapchat use. This research provided more information on how individuals with social anxiety interact with social media sites. The information gathered from this study could be useful in treating individuals with social anxiety

The Effects of Cognitive Stimulation of Instagram on Anxiety, Fear of Missing Out, Memory, and Self-Esteem

With the increasing use of social media in the daily lives of undergraduate college students, it is important to investigate the effects of social media on psychological well-being and cognitive function. Lillard and Peterson (2011) found that overstimulating children’s televisions shows, such as SpongeBob, negatively impacted children’s impulsive behaviors and attention. The current research focused on emerging adults and considered the effect of overstimulation of social media, specifically Instagram, on anxiety level, self-esteem, fear of missing out (FoMo), and memory. Participants were randomly assigned into either the control (coloring on an Ipad) or experimental (Instagram stimulation) group and after a set of pre-test questions regarding self-esteem and anxiety, participants were exposed to cognitive stimulation for 10 minutes. Then participants completed a post-test questionnaire of self-esteem, anxiety, memory recall, and fear of missing out (FoMo). Researchers hypothesized that the Instagram stimulation group would have lower levels of self-esteem, higher anxiety, higher levels of FoMo, and lower memory recall than those in the coloring group. Effects of exposure to Instagram has not been thoroughly researched, therefore it is an important avenue to study as emerging adults have an increasing habit of looking at Instagram on a regular basis. An independent samples t-test and a mixed-model ANOVA found that those exposed to Instagram had heightened levels of FoMo. In addition, participants, regardless of condition, experienced a significant increase in self-esteem from pre- to post-test. Future research may consider examining the effects of stimulation of Instagram regarding short-term memory and self-esteem

Exploring the Phenomenon of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO): The Emergence, Practice, and its Impact on Social Media User

This article discusses the phenomenon of Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) on social media. It is a term used to show human consumption behavior who are afraid of missing things including gaining social interaction, buying commodities, and others as it has emerged in social media. Thus, this paper aims to explore and investigate the phenomenon of Fear of Missing Out. This research used Systematic Literature Review (SLR) as the reproducible and explicit method to answer the topic of the research by evaluating, identifying, and synthesizing all related documents and publications by the researchers, and scholars. The research conducts an in-depth study of the articles which have been published in the last ten years and recent FoMO cases that occurred and were reported on local news, articles, and social media. This research reveals the emergence of the phenomenon of FoMO in social media, the practice of FoMO that appear in Instagram features, and the impact of FoMO on social media user. These fndings show that the FoMO phenomenon emerges with the highest fear of missing information, interaction, relatedness, popularity, and opportunity on social media, especially on Instagram. In addition, FoMO harms social media users regarding mental health such as experiencing mental illness, anxiety, depression, and insecurities in comparing life with others. In conclusion, the phenomenon of fear of Missing Out influences the user negatively as it is harmful to both emotional and psychological

Using Social Media for Online English Assignments: Problems and Solutions

Social media are widely used in today’s activities for all levels of humans. In students’ daily activities, updating their status through social media is like a must. Thus, the writer wants to highlight her teaching activity to something that her students love doing in it. English and social media become her concern to write this paper. Therefore, the aim of this research is to find out the kind and examples of vocabulary learned and appropriate grammar that appear in the students’ social media during this online learning era. She will also tell the steps, challenges and solutions based on her English teaching experience. The method is qualitative research, by finding, describing and analyzing the data in students’ social media after online learning English. The data shows that many students apply correct grammar, but only a few students use vocabularies learned from online class to update their status in social media. Besides, the lecturer provides some suggestions to fix their errors in using the words in a sentence. This research is supported by other relevant studies about the advantage of social media in learning and it  tries to contribute ideas toward different opinions from other researchers. The findings also more detailed on the use of correct English grammar and vocabulary in social media

Student experiences of facilitated asynchronous online discussion boards: Lessons learned and implications for teaching practice

As an alliance of academics undertaking blended delivery, we have experienced the challenge of tailoring teaching strategies to different learning styles. Our teaching has evolved, moving from traditional didactic delivery to the utilisation of online technology to accommodate both academic and student expectations. The pressure to teach within constrained resources and issues presented from the COVID-19 pandemic has provided opportunities to optimise educational technology. We identified a gap in genuinely engaged online discussions, observing that pedagogic value was often obscure. This cross-sectional study investigated the opinions and experiences of undergraduate students in four health science online units where asynchronous discussion boards were linked to summative assessment. By assessing discussion posts, students may be motivated to participate further, with student engagement influenced through educator involvement, the discussion purpose and group interactivity. Whilst some students were critical of the value of asynchronous discussion boards, others positively viewed discussions as a platform for peer engagement and information sharing. Discussion boards can provide active learning experiences particularly for online students; however, effective educator involvement and online supportive teaching strategies and practices are crucial to pedagogical success. Based on the key findings from this study we propose implications for practice in a higher education context

Fear of missing out on social media: implications for private and professional lives

The “dark side” of social media use is a topic of vivid discourse in academia and mass media. Within this discourse, various negative effects, such as social media fatigue, addictive or compulsive use, and social media use-related sleep problems have garnered attention. The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) is a particular dark side of social media phenomenon that has significant implications for diverse segments of social media users. In the past decade, since the operationalization of FoMO, scholars, especially those researching social media, have made continuing progress in understanding FoMO’s conceptual foundations as well as the capacities in which FoMO can influence the well-being of social media users. Despite the growing scholarly interest, research on FoMO is fragmented and features significant knowledge gaps, such as a limited understanding of its consequences and a lack of focus in prior studies beyond young adults and teenagers as a respondent group. These gaps need to be addressed as myriad mass media reports and academic studies have linked social media users’ experience of FoMO with indicators of diminished well-being, which in turn has implications for these users’ personal and professional lives. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate how FoMO, as a context-specific psychological trigger, predicates users’ experience of phenomena associated with the dark side of social media such as social media fatigue, compulsive social media use, and social media stalking. It further investigates the influence of such FoMOdriven experiences on individual users’ professional and personal lives. This dissertation examines FoMO within the social media environment and investigates theoretically grounded frameworks that illustrate the pathways through which FoMO may lead to negative consequences. The dissertation comprises five articles: one systematic literature review (Article I) and four quantitative studies (Articles II–V) developed based on the review findings. Following a systematic review of 58 empirical publications on FoMO, Article I provides foundational knowledge on FoMO’s known antecedents and consequences, indirect influencers (moderators and mediators), study contexts, conceptualization, and operationalization. The results are used to present an overarching framework and five key propositions for advancing research on FoMO. The findings of Articles II and III provide new insights into FoMO’s influence on the personal well-being of social media users. Discerning significant links between FoMO and the compulsive use of social media, online social comparison, social media stalking, and disruptions in sleep hygiene (i.e., sleep-related habits and routines), these articles argue that FoMO could culminate in social media users’ experiences of problematic sleep and social media fatigue. The findings also show that FoMO may have an amplification effect on the users’ dark side of social media experiences on these platforms, albeit through different manifestations among young adults and working professionals. Articles IV and V focus on FoMO-driven social media use in the workplace and the subsequent consequences. In doing so, this research empirically investigates employees, who are a relatively less-studied demographic in the FoMO research compared to young adults. The findings show that FoMO has the capacity to predict diminished work performance, work procrastination, phubbing (the problematic use of smartphones during social or workplace interactions), workplace exhaustion, and work incivility. Further, these articles show that individual characteristics, such as regulatory focus and social media envy, play an important role in users’ experiences of negative consequences. Collectively, the findings of this dissertation provide novel insights into the mechanisms through which FoMO can trigger the problematic use of technological platforms, such as social media and smartphones, and users’ engagement in activities that are intrinsically linked with the dark side of social media. The dissertation suggests that FoMO and the dark side of social media phenomena may indeed have a cyclical relationship wherein one may trigger another, causing a vicious loop. In addition to advancing the understanding of ways in which FoMO can negatively influence an individual’s life, the findings hint at its potential to indirectly, but positively, benefit individual performance in the workplace. In doing so, the dissertation creates new knowledge on the dual effects of FoMO. Cumulatively, the findings of this dissertation, particularly Article I, provide several avenues that scholars can pursue to further advance the frontier of knowledge on FoMO in particular and the dark side of social media in general. KEYWORDS: Fear of missing out, dark side of social media, compulsive use, phubbing, problematic sleep, work performanceSosiaalisen median ei-toivotut vaikutukset (sosiaalisen median pimeä puoli) palvelujen käyttäjille ovat viime vuosina olleet vilkkaan julkisen keskustelun ja akateemisen tutkimuksen kohteena. Aihepiirin tutkimus on tarkastellut mm. käyttäjien väsymystä sosiaalisen mediaan, riippuvuutta sosiaalista mediaa kohtaan, sosiaalisen median pakonomaista käyttöä, sekä sosiaalisen median käytön vaikutusta uneen. Paitsi jäämisen pelko (Fear of Missing Out, FoMO) on ilmiö sosiaalisen median pimeiden puolin kentässä, jolla on havaittu merkittäviä, tyypillisesti kielteisiä vaikutuksia palvelujen käyttäjiin. Lisääntyneestä tutkimuksesta huolimatta ymmärrys FoMO:sta on pirstaloitunutta. Tutkimuskirjallisuus on korostanut erityisesti tarvetta FoMo:n käsitteellis-teoreettisen taustan ymmärryksen vahvistamiselle ja tarvetta ymmärtää FoMO:n vaikutuksia sosiaalisen median palvelujen käyttäjien hyvinvoinnille. Tämän väitöstutkimuksen tavoitteena on osaltaan täyttää em. aukkoja aiemmassa tutkimuksessa tutkimalla FoMO:a kontekstisidonnaisena psykologisena laukaisevana tekijänä, jolla on vaikutuksia sosiaalisen median käyttäjiin niin yksityis- kuin työelämässäkin. Väitöskirja koostuu viidestä artikkelista: yhdestä systemaattisesta kirjallisuuskatsauksesta (Artikkeli I) ja neljästä kvantitatiivisesta kyselytutkimuksesta (Artikkelit II–V), jotka on kehitetty kirjallisuuskatsauksen tulosten perusteella. Artikkeli I perustuu 58 empiiriseen julkaisuun FoMO:sta ja tarjoaa perustiedot FoMO:on vaikuttavista tekijöistä ja seurauksista, epäsuorista vaikuttajista (moderaattorit ja välittävät muuttujat), tutkimuskonteksteista, käsitteellistämisestä ja operationalisoinnista. Tuloksia käytetään esittämään tutkimuksellinen viitekehys ja viisi keskeistä suuntaa FoMO:n tutkimuksen edistämiseksi. Artikkelien II ja III tulokset tarjoavat uusia näkökulmia FoMO:n vaikutukseen sosiaalisen median käyttäjien henkilökohtaiseen hyvinvointiin. Artikkeleissa havaitaan merkittäviä yhteyksiä FoMO:n ja sosiaalisen median pakonomaisen käytön, verkossa tapahtuvan sosiaalisen vertailun, sosiaalisessa mediassa tapahtuvan vainoamisen (stalking) ja unihygienian häiriöiden (eli unen laatuun vaikuttavien tapojen ja rutiinien) välillä. Artikkelit osoittavat, että FoMO voi johtaa sosiaalisen median käyttäjien kokemaan ongelmalliseen uneen ja väsymykseen sosiaalista mediaa kohtaan. Artikkelit IV ja V keskittyvät FoMO:n ajamaan sosiaalisen median käyttöön työpaikalla ja siihen liittyviin seurauksiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että FoMO voi ennustaa heikentynyttä työsuoritusta, työn viivyttelyä, puhelinten liiallista käyttöä sosiaalisissa tilanteissa tai työympäristössä (phubbing), työuupumusta ja epäkohteliasta käyttäytymistä työpaikalla. Lisäksi nämä artikkelit osoittivat yksilön ominaisuuksien tärkeän roolin käyttäjien kokemuksissa näistä negatiivisista seurauksista. Kokonaisuutena väitöstutkimukseen sisällytettyjen artikkeleiden tulokset tarjoavat uutta tietoa FoMO: on vaikuttavista tekijöitä ja sen seurauksista niin ihmisten yksityiselämässä kuin työkontekstissakin. Tulokset tarjoavat viitteitä FoMO:n ja sosiaalisen median pimeän puolen välisestä toisiaan vahvistavasta syklisestä suhteesta. Tulokset tarjoavat myös, osin yllättävästi, viitteitä, että paremmin tunnettujen kielteisten vaikutustensa lisäksi FoMO:lla voi olla myös positiivisia vaikutuksia yksilön suorituskykyyn työpaikalla. Väitöstutkimus tarjoaa kattavan viitekehyksen, jota erityisesti FoMO:n ja yleisemmin sosiaalisen median pimeän puolen tutkimuksessa. ASIASANAT: Paitsi jäämisen pelko, sosiaalisen median pimeä puoli, pakonomainen käyttö, phubbing, uniongelmat, suorituskyky töiss