The aim of the present research was to examine possible connections
between academic motivation of college students, FoMO
and social media engagement constructs in the academic arena.
Path analysis results have confirmed the assumption that
extrinsically and a-motivated students would be more likely to
use social media tools available in the classroom. However, when
those links were mediated by the FoMO variable, insignificant
direct relations between the above academic motivations and
social media engagement were shown. Thus, both motivational
variables were positively associated with FoMO, which in turn
led to increased levels of social media engagement in the classroom.
These findings illustrate the robust mediating role of FoMO
in explaining social media engagement. It can be inferred that the
link between motivational deficits and social media engagement is
more likely to be indirect, and that these psychological deficits
could be linked to social media use only insofar as they are linked
to FoMO, in accordance with Przybylski et al.’s (2013) study.