3. Study 2: FoMO in society
In our second study we recruited a representat ive adult sample
to explore how fear of missing out related to demogra phics, individual
differences, and social media engagement across the general
population. Our aims in this study were twofold. First, we wanted
to examine how demograph ic factors, such as age and gender related
to FoMO on the population level. Our second goal was to apply
the motivatio nal framework of SDT to understand how
individual differenc es in need satisfaction and well-being related
social media engagem ent. This took the form of three research
questions.
First we hypothesize d that individuals who have had their basic
needs for competence , autonomy, and relatedness satisfied on a
day-to-day basis would be lower in fear of missing out. Second,
we hypothesize d that FoMO would be negatively associate d with
indicators of psychological well-being. That is, we expected that
experiencing lower levels of general mood and lower overall life
satisfaction would report higher levels of FoMO. Finally, we
hypothesize d that FoMO is robustly related to social media use.
Specifically, we predicted that FoMO would mediate the relations
(if any) linking individual variation in basic need satisfaction, general
mood, and life satisfaction to behavioral engagement with social
media.