A study of Social Networking Addiction, FOMO and Self Esteem among Young Adults

Abstract

The technology driven world has impacted the lives of young adults the most. The urge to stay active and being connected to their friends and family members all the time has taken a toll on their psychological well-being. The anxiety created by the activities in social situations drives them to not miss out on anything. Teens and young adults are more impacted by fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is the feeling that others are having more stimulating and rewarding experiences than them. There's a need to constantly check on what’s going on in others' lives which creates tension in their mind and hence, people are experiencing an increased activation time on social media. The increased social media usage and constantly checking on others life events accordingly impacts people’s self-esteem. The present research aimed to study the relationship of Social Networking Addiction, FOMO and Self Esteem among young adults. Standardized tools were used to measure Social Networking Addiction, FOMO and Self-Esteem. A total sample of 60 in the age 18-25 were collected. The results found out that there is significant positive correlation between social networking addiction and fear of missing out among young adults. There is also a significant positive correlation between self-esteem and conflict (sub-dimension of social networking addiction scale). However, there is no significant correlation between self-esteem with FOMO and self-esteem with social media addiction. To lessen the intensity of people experiencing FOMO, direct work should be done on the causes of FOMO. One way is enhancing the perceived social support of the person. Perceived social support is directly linked to lowering the stressful life events and a hope and courage that everything will be fine. The other way is to develop a sense of gratitude for all the minor things they possess in their life. This gives them a sense of comfort that they are still better than many and that everybody has different life experiences. The lesser they make social comparisons, the more satisfied they will be with their own life, thus reducing FOMO and impacting their social media usage.