Fear of missing out (FoMO) among social media users: a systematic literature review, synthesis and framework for future research

“…effects studies have shown that persons with lower levels of need satisfaction and problematic social comparisons and attachments tend to exhibit ongoing symptoms of problematic Internet use, anxiety, depression, and loneliness (Elhai et al., 2021a; Fioravanti et al., 2021; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“This suggests that users with the FOMO are likely to pay more attention to others’ social media dynamics (Milyavskaya et al., 2018; Tandon et al., 2021) and spend considerable time observing others’ profiles and activities (Tandon et al., 2021).”

“(Abbas et al., 2019; Fraccastoro et al., 2021; Tandon et al., 2021; Vahdat et al., 2021).”

“Tandon et al. (2021) summarized that such negative emotions due to FoMO might arise from ‘envy (James et al., 2017), rumination (Dempsey et al., 2019), and decreased self-image (Shujaat et al., 2019)’ that in turn enhance experienced levels of stress (Tandon et al., 2021, p. 3).”

“The authors chose the Scopus, Web of Science, ERIC, ProQuest Psychology, PubMed and Google Scholar databases since they followed several published articles in top-ranking journals [32, 33].”

“The extant research generally suggests a positive relationship between FoMO and social media news fatigue (see the review from Tandon et al. 2021).”

“3,9,11 The present research seeks to address this gap in the literature by providing an experimental examination of the direction and causality between FOMO and SMU.”

“Hence, many employers consider cyber-loa fi ng a severe threat to employee productivity (O ’ Neill, Hambley, and Bercovich 2014; Moody and Siponen 2013; Tandon et al. 2021b; Tandon et al. 2021a).”

“This frequent interaction tendency manifests as passive content consumption and compulsive checking behaviors driven by an urgent need to stay connected to their social networks [47].”

“However, FoMO through social media is highly contingent on a user’s personality, their demographic characteristics, and the social media platform where the communication takes places (see Akbari et al., 2021; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“As a result, social media compulsiveness can boost the appeal of a social media platform while also reflecting how much people like social media entertainment [17].”

“This may be attributed to the phenomenon known as Fear of Missing Out, which introduces psychological distress into daily life when social media is not used regularly [65].”

“12,13 Other more nuanced findings stem from research investigating problematic types of social media use, including social media addiction, 14 fear of missing out, 15 and emotional investment in social media.”

“23,28,29 However, to the best of the author’s knowledge, there is currently no evidence specifically examining defense mechanisms and FoMO as sequential mediators in the relationship between alexithymia and PSMU.”

“Consequently, as children constantly compare their lives to the curated content of others, feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and anxiety may intensify, adversely affecting their emotional wellness [41], [42].”

“As noted in a comprehensive review by Tandon et al. (2021), limited attention has connected social media news effects with FoMO, and these often lack strong theoretical support.”

“…search across prominent journal publishers, including Wiley, Emerald, Elsevier, Sage, and Springer, all indexed in the Scopus database, which comprises a vast and rapidly expanding array of esteemed international scientific journals (Bretas & Alon, 2021; Redine et al., 2023; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“…level, outcomes such as distraction (Riordan et al., 2020), loss of academic motivation (Alt, 2015), and fake news sharing (Talwar et al., 2020) suggest that the effects of FoMO are a social public health problem that exceeds individual boundaries (Scott & Woods, 2018; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Prior research has established a positive relationship between the need to belong and social media addiction [125], and it is well documented that peer-related factors significantly contribute to compulsive social media use [137].”

“Social media as a source of stress can trigger approval anxiety, fear of missing out, connection overload, or online vigilance (LaRose et al., 2014; Reinecke et al., 2018; Steers et al., 2016; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“According to Tandon et al. (2021), FOMO should however be studied from a more holistic digital perspective as it is evolving into a broader construct than originally conceptualized (e.g., previous focus on general SNS use).”

“Informasi yang berlebihan dan emosi negatif yang dialami dapat membebani kemampuan kognitif pengguna media sosial dan menyebabkan kelelahan (Kaur et al., 2021; Malik et al., 2021; Talwar et al., 2021; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Studies have shown that social isolation during COVID-19 lockdown caused reduced personal socialization [44], and individuals with inadequate social needs were more prone to developing FoMO [45,46].”

“Permanent digital connectivity can also cause social digital pressure [25], fear of missing out (FOMO) [4, 75], or nomophobia, i. e., the fear of being without a mobile phone [74].”

“This lens on FoMO extends the current literature, which has so far mostly focused on how FoMO affects users’ well-being and relationship with social media at large (for an overview, see Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Tandon et al. (2021) conducted a systematic literature review on FoMO among social media users.”

“Consistent with prior research (e.g. Przybylski et al., 2013; Tandon et al., 2021), FoMO was positively associated with PSMU and DBO, and negatively predicted psychological well-being.”

“However, despite the growing body of FoMO research within digital psychology, existing studies have predominantly focused on psychopathological outcomes such as addiction, depression, anxiety, and problematic smartphone use (Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Furthermore, most studies focused on platforms like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Facebook, with limited attention to emerging platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, where older adult user bases are reportedly growing [77, 111].”

“Supporting this, previous studies in the literature have found significant associations between FoMO and stress (Steele, Hall, and Christofferson 2020; Tandon et al. 2021).”

“Social media use (SMU) is defined as anyone’s use of media to create, circulate, share, exchange information, and communicate in a variety of formats and with multiple communities (Leonardi & Vaast, messages, and otherwise engaging with other users (Tandon et al., 2021; Trifiro & Gerson, 2019).”

“…established a clear linear connection between FoMO and social media use (Zhang et al., 2021), and numerous studies have also recognized FoMO as a significant factor contributing to excessive, compulsive, or problematic engagement with social media (Hussain et al., 2023; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“FoMO has been largely studied concurrently with social media use (see Fioravanti et al., 2021 for review; see Tandon et al., 2021 for review).”

“It has been shown that fear of missing out has detrimental effect on people’s cog - nitive and behavioral functioning (Roberts & David, 2020; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“© 2022 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC Robinson et al. 2019; Tandon et al. 2021).”

“According to self-determination theory (SDT), the need for relatedness—the fundamental desire to feel connected to others and experience a sense of belonging—constitutes one of the three basic psychological needs essential for wellbeing (Ryan and Deci, 2017; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“This cultural difference is highly likely to reshape FOMO’s mechanism of action and pressure transmission path [19,20].”

“Considering potential pathological mechanisms, screen-time may interfere with sleep by substituting for sleep time, delaying sleep onset, or causing disruptions from nighttime notifications and fear of missing out (Godsell & White, 2019; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Moreover, fear of missing out (FoMO)—anxiety stemming from the belief that one might miss important content when disconnected from social media (Przybylski et al., 2013; Tandon et al., 2021)— drives compulsive checking and indiscriminate information consumption.”

“FoMO drives users to monitor others’ activities on social media in real time, compensating for their own perceived lack of experiences (Tandon et al., 2021).”

“When these innate needs remain unfulfilled, individuals are often propelled to seek fulfillment through interactions on social media platforms [16].”

“ofsocialmediaplatforms has negativepsychologicalconsequences includingthefearofmissing out (Tandon et al ., 2021), anxiety (Vannucci et al ., 2017), stress, dispositional anxiety and negative self-evaluations while making social comparisons (Nesi and Prinstein, 2015), ego (Andreassen et al ., 2017)…”

“First, a review revealed that social media use heightens fear of missing out (FOMO) and online social comparison [45, 46], leading to less social clarity and lower friendship quality for students [16].”

“The prior FoMO studies have clearly suggested that a high level of FoMO has negative psychological and physiological consequences [24] .”

“The broader fear of missing out literature also indicates conceptual and operational diversity, suggesting that its behavioural consequences may vary across contexts, platforms, and outcome variables (Tandon et al., 2021).”

“A systematic literature review explains that FoMO is closely related to social media use, social comparison, psychological need satisfaction, and compulsive digital engagement [10].”

“Temuan tersebut diperkuat oleh Tandon et al. (2021) yang menyatakan bahwa FoMO menjadi faktor utama yang mendorong individu untuk terus memeriksa media sosial secara berulang dan kompulsif.”

“Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) refers to the anxiety that others are gaining experiences, opportunities, or information from which one is excluded [64].”

“These range from variable reward schedules through social proof to Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) (Tandon et al. 2021).”

“…suggest that social media for Indonesian Gen Z functions not only as an information channel, but also as a day to day consumption space where product discovery, evaluation, and purchase-related interaction increasingly occur through short-video and social commerce features (Tandon et al., (2021).”

“FoMO has been consistently linked to increased social media use, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and lower life satisfaction (Andreassen, 2015; Tandon et al., 2021; Ungaretti et al., 2025).”

“In the latest systematic study by Tandon et al. (2021), based on the analysis of 470 relevant works, it is argued that current FOMO research mainly focuses on four main directions: (1) identifying the antecedents and consequences of FOMO; (2) analyzing individual differences and the relationship…”

“Strategi ini terbukti mampu mendorong perilaku konsumtif secara cepat, terutama dalam konteks promosi yang bersifat terbatas, eksklusif, atau temporer (Tandon et al., 2021).”

“Research has shown that FoMO is associated with a range of online activity, in particular engagement with social media [66, 67].”

“…rather than from an anxious fear of exclusion (Przybylski et al., 2013). additionally, staying informed about social trends and information (tandon et al., 2021) may contribute positively to users’ experiences. consistent with prior research (clark et al., 2018; Reer et al., 2019), social…”

“…lens in dataset collection by tracing concept development through backward chaining and tracking future development through forward looking (tandon et al., 2021). the panel ratings of industry experts for quality evaluation criteria were scrutinized for inter-rater reliability using…”

“This phenomenon encourages the use of social mobile apps, which can satisfy the needs related to FoMO, thereby leading to increased technology usage (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Tandon et al., 2021 ).”

“And it is a concept referring to a pervasive apprehension toward absence from rewarding, memorable and meaningful moments experienced by contemporaries (Fang et al., 2020; Tandon et al., 2021).”

“In a related development, Kemp (2019) cited in Tandon (2021) posit that in the year 2018, most people were spending about 135 minutes per day on social media [25; 26]; one of the reasons that have influenced people’s interest in accessing information is the “Fear of Missing Out.”