Syntax Literate: Jurnal Ilmiah Indonesia p�ISSN: 2541-0849 e-ISSN: 2548-1398

Vol. 7, No. 1, January 2022

FEAR OF MISSING OUT DAN MEDIA SOSIAL SAAT PANDEMI COVID-19

Idznika Nurannisa Wibowo^1*, Reyna Cesariyani R. Rusuldi², Almara Diva Puteri Arnapi³, Vatine Adila⁴, Danti Nur Indiastuti⁵

^1,3,4,5 Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

² Department of Anatomy-Histology and Pharmacology, Division of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

The increasing usage of social media, during the COVID-19 pandemic, has exposed individuals to �Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)�. The study aims to determine the relationship between FoMO and the duration of social media use and age. This cross-sectional analytic study adopted snowball sampling and involved 836 individuals. An online questionnaire was distributed from July 6^th - 28^th 2021 on several social media. Chi-square test and Spearman's rank correlation were employed to process the data. The participants dominantly had a FoMO score of 25 or less. The majority of the samples use social media 4-8 hours/day with a corresponding FoMO score of 31-36 (i.e. third quartile). There is a significant relationship (χ²(6) = 18.967, P value = 0.004) and correlation (r = 0.116; P value ≼ 0,001) between FoMO and duration of social media usage. However, no significant relationship was observed between FoMO and gender (χ² (3) = 4.652, P value = 0.199). FoMO and age are also not significantly correlated (r-0.026; P value = 0.461). There is a significant relationship between the value of FoMO and the duration of social media use. No significant relationship between FoMO and gender. FoMO has a significant positive correlation with the duration of social media usage. FoMO has no significant correlation with age.

Keywords: COVID-19, Fear of Missing Out, FoMO, Mental Health, Social Media

Introduction

In early 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the COVID-19 pandemic was a global public health emergency (Ghebreyesus, 2020). The Indonesian government then released several regulations to reduce the number of cases of COVID-19, for instance, large-scale social restrictions, physical distancing, work from home (WFH), as well as lockdown in some areas. These regulations affect various aspects of life such as social, economic, and mental health.

The use of social media has increased sharply, both in the number of visits and visitors (Hayran and Anik, 2021). In 2020, internet users in Indonesia reached 196.7 million or 73.7% of the population (Jatmiko, 2020). There is an increase in the use of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic (Gioia et al., 2021). The social media penetration in Indonesia per January 2020 stood at 59% (Kempt, 2020). In January 2021, there was an increase up to 73.7% (Kemp, 2021). Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 35.3% of participants reported spending 1-2 hours/day playing social media. Only 12.1% of the sample spent more than 4 hours/day. During quarantine, the percentage of samples that previously spent 1-2 hours/day decreased significantly to 15.4%. Meanwhile, participants who spent more than 4 hours/day using social media increased to 36.4% of participants (Gioia et al., 2021).

The increase of internet usage during the pandemic could have a positive impact, for instance, easier ways for people to buy necessities and work. However, using social media for a long time can harm psychological well-being (Sitepu, 2019). Increased use of social media also leads to mental health disorders, specifically internet addiction. Moreover, some people feel that the use of social media can directly cause mental disorders such as depression and suicidal ideation (O�Reilly et al., 2018). Based on data from Digital 2021, The Latest Insights into the State of Digital, 170 million of the total 274.9 million Indonesian population are active users of social media with an average usage time of 3 hours 14 minutes. This shows an increase of 10 million or 6.3% from the previous year (Kemp, 2021).

Fear of missing out (FoMO) is a disorder that often arises due to excessive use of social media and the internet. FoMO is positively related to social media use (Alt, 2017). FoMO to is a fear of losing valuable individual or group moments where the individual cannot be present in that moment and is characterized by a desire to stay connected to what others are doing via the internet (Przybylski et al., 2013). FoMO often can be used as an indicator of negative self-perceptions and causes difficulty sleeping (Barry and Wong, 2020). In a study conducted before the pandemic, involving 936 individuals with diverse socio-demographic backgrounds, it was found that at least 81% of participants had experienced FoMO (Hayran, Anik and G�rhan-Canli, 2020). Individuals who experience FoMO will feel pleasure if they can access the internet freely. However, if the freedom to access the internet is limited, the individual will feel restless and consider himself left behind in information and not being up to date (Ayuningtyas and Wiyono, 2020). People develop negative feelings and emotions from social media due to enviousness of other people's posts and lives. Researchers at two German universities looked at Facebook data and found that people have negative feelings when using social media because they perceive life seems �perfect� from their friends (Akbar et al., 2019).

There are several characteristics about the impact of FoMO. First, individuals always oblige themselves to check social media, feel happy, and even proud if someone makes comments on their social media accounts. Second, individuals always force themselves to participate in all activities because it can increase their self-esteem through various posts related to the activities they participate in. Third, individuals always create their own �stage show�. The stage can be in front-stage (online) or backstage (offline), and it is on that stage the individuals represent themselves in their daily lives. Fourth, individuals always feel themselves lacking and wanting more (Przybylski et al., 2013).

Based on the explanation above, social media could be the main trigger of a phenomenon called FoMO (Milyavskaya et al., 2018). Therefore, this study is conducted to find out the demography and characteristics of social media usage, the prevalence of FoMO, and the relationship between FoMO and the duration of social media use and age.

Research Method

The study is observational analytical research with cross-sectional design involving 836 individuals. Snowball sampling was adopted to recruit participants, in which a questionnaire was distributed on social media platforms from July 6th, 2021, to July 28th 2021. The inclusion criteria is those who are willing to participate in the study. The exclusion criteria is those having incomplete data. The questionnaire contains the respondent's demographics (name, gender, age), duration of use of social media, the type of social media used, and 10 questions on the FoMO scale referring to the previous study (Przybylski et al., 2013). The FoMO scale was distributed using an Indonesian translated version (Sitompul, 2017). The FoMO scale has a reliability value of 0.729 (Sitompul, 2017). The questions are in the form of a likert scale, ranging from 1-5. The smaller the number, the more inconsistent the statement is with the respondent's condition. The larger the number chosen, the more appropriate the statement is with the respondent's condition.

FoMO were then classified into quartile 1 (Q1), quartile 2 (Q2), quartile 3 (Q3), and quartile 4 (Q4) according to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. The data obtained was processed using the 27th edition of the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) application. Chi-Square test was used to determine the relationship between FoMO and variables that met the requirements of Chi-Square test, which are the duration of social media usage and age group. In addition, this study examines the correlation between FoMO with the duration of social media usage and age using Spearman's rank correlation test. P values<0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Table 1 Classification of FoMO

Classification of FoMO	Range of scores
Quartile 1 (Q1)	≤25
Quartile 2 (Q2)	26 - 30
Quartile 3 (Q3)	31 - 36
Quartile 4 (Q4)	≥37

Results and Discussion

The results of the questionnaire are summarized in Table 2 and Table 3. Table 4 describes the correlation of FoMO with duration of social media usage and age.

Table 2 Demographics and Characteristics of Social Media Usage of All Samples

Variables	n=836
Gender	�
Male	104 (12.4)
Female	732 (87.6)
Age	�
12-15	71 (8.5)
16-19	515 (61.6)
20-23	209 (25.0)
24-27	18 (2.2)
28-31	9 (1.1)
32-35	4 (0.5)
36-39	3 (0.4)
40-43	5 (0.6)
44-47	1 (0.1)
48-51	0 (0.0)
52-55	1 (0.1)
Social Media Usage	�
0-4 hours/day	230 (27.8)
4-8 hours/day	521 (97.2)
>8 hours/day	85 (10.2)
Social Media Used^a	�
Instagram	779
Facebook	232
Youtube	583
Twitter	418
Tiktok	458
Whatsapp	750
Line	366
Telegram	523
Linkedin	73
Others^b	22
Total	836

Values in brackets are percentages

^a There are samples that use more than 1 social media

^b Others = Path, ask.fm, discord, weibo, weverse

Table 3 ������� Comparison of Demographics and Characteristics of Social Media Usage According to Classification of FoMO

Variables	Classification of FoMO				χ^2test
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
n=836	230	196	213	197	n/a
Gender					χ^2(3)=4.65
Male	32 (13.9)	19 (9.7)	22 (10.3)	31 (15.7)
Female	198 (86.1)	177 (90.3)	191 (89.7)	166 (84.3)
Age
12-15	22	14	22	13	n/a
16-19	132	129	131	123
20-23	60	44	53	52
24-27	5	5	3	5
28-31	6	0	2	1
32-35	2	1	1	0
36-39	0	1	1	1
40-43	2	2	0	1
44-47	0	0	0	1
48-51	0	0	0	0
52-55	1	0	0	0
Social Media Usage (hours/day)
0-4	80 (3.8)	48 (24.5)	53 (24.9)	49 (24.9)	χ^2(6)=18.97**
4-8	133 (57.8)	135 (68.9)	136 (63.8)	117 (59.4)
>8	17 (7.4)	13 (6.6)	24 (11.3)	31 (15.7)
Social Media Used^a
Instagram��������� 212		185	200	182	n/a
Facebook���������� 56		52	62	62
Youtube����������� 162		146	161	114
Twitter������������� 105		105	113	95
Tiktok�������������� 106		119	131	102
Whatsapp�������� 208		182	197	163
Line	101	92	90	83
Telegram������� 139		124	141	119
Linkedin�������� 22		17	19	15
Others^b^��������������������5		5	6	6

Values in brackets are percentages; n/a = not applicable, it does not meet the requirement of chi-square test; ** = P value≼0.01

^a There are samples that use more than 1 social media

^b Others = Path, ask.fm, discord, weibo, weverse

Table 4 Correlation of Classification of FoMO with Duration of Social Media Usage and Age

�	Duration of Social Media Usage	Age
FoMO	0.116** (0.047 � 0.185)	0.026 (-0.044 � 0.095)

Values in brackets are the ratio with a Confidence Interval (CI) of 95%

*** = P value ≼0.001

There were 836 samples participating in this study. The samples are dominantly distributed in Q1 with a FoMO score of 25 or less. There was a higher number of female samples (87.6%) compared to males (12.4%). Females showed a higher distribution in the FoMO Q1 (27.0%), followed by the FoMO Q3 (26.1%). While females have the lowest number of samples in FoMO Q4 (22.7%). The male sample showed a higher distribution in the FoMO Q1 classification (30.8%), followed by the FoMO Q4 classification (29.8%). Males had the lowest sample in the FoMO Q2 classification (18.3%). Both genders showed the highest number of samples in the Q1 FoMO classification.

In this study, the majority of the samples are in the age group 16-19 (61.6%), followed by the age group 20-23 (25.0%), and 12-15 (8.5%). Age groups 16-19 and 20-23 showed similar results, the number of samples dominated the FoMO Q1 classification, followed by the FoMO Q3 classification. The age group 12-15 showed different results, Q1 and Q3 classifications have the same number of samples.

This study shows that the majority of the sample use social media for 4-8 hours/day (62.3%), followed by 0-4 hours/day (27.5%), and >8 hours/day (10.2%). The duration of 4-8 hours/day had more samples in FoMO Q3 (63.8%). Duration >8 hours/day has a higher sample in the FoMO Q4 classification (15.7%). While the duration of 0-4 hours/day has more samples in the FoMO Q1 (34.8%).

In this study, the most widely used social media were Instagram (93.2%), WhatsApp (89.7%), and YouTube (69.7%). Instagram, WhatsApp, and youtube users have the highest samples on FoMO Q1.

There is a significant relationship between the FoMO classification and the duration of social media usage χ² (6) = 18.967; P value = 0.004. There was no significant relationship between FoMO and gender χ² (3) = 4.652; P value = 0.199. FoMO has a significant positive correlation with the duration of social media use (r = 0.116; P value ≼ 0.001). Meanwhile, FoMO did not have a significant correlation with age (r = 0.026; P value = 0.461).

The results of this study indicate that both males and females tend to experience more FoMO in Q1 than the other FoMO classifications. The male and female samples in this study could not be compared because the number of samples was dominated by females. However, this study shows that after Q1 FoMO, more males have FoMO exceeding the 75th percentile (Q4). While females have more samples in FoMO Q3 than Q4 so it is suspected that males have higher FoMO values than females. This result is consistent with previous studies which reported that males have higher levels of FoMO than females (Przybylski et al., 2013; Qutishat, 2020). While research by Yaseen et al. (2021) found no significant difference between FoMO and gender.

In this study, it was found that there was no significant correlation between FoMO and age (r = 0.026; P value = 0.461). Kargin et al. (2020) found that there was no significant difference between the total value of FoMO with gender, age, and income. The majority of the age group 16-19 followed by 20-23 in this study showed a tendency to have a FoMO Q1 classification. Research by Barry and Wong (2020) stated that the age groups that experienced the most FoMO were those aged 14-17 years and 24-27 years. In another study, it was also found that the age group 18-25 mostly (43.5%) experienced moderate levels of FoMO (Savitri, 2019). Due to the widespread presence of social media and the personal need to constantly interact with others, FoMO is more often found in adolescents and young adults than in older adults. However, this relationship can change over time depending on one's relationship with the people around him and the need to connect with others through social media (Milyavskaya et al., 2018).

This research showed significant correlation (χ²(6) = 18.967; P value = 0.004) and positive significant correlation (r = 0.116; P value ≼ 0.001) between FoMO and the duration of social media use. This result is consistent with previous studies that found moderate correlation between FoMO and the duration of social media use (r = 0.30, P value < 0.001) (Baker, Krieger and LeRoy, 2016). Bestari and Widayat (2018) also showed significant correlation between duration of social media usage and FoMO, which is a strong and positive correlation. Gioia et al. (2021) also stated that FoMO has a significant correlation with the duration of social media usage each day in pandemic situations. In this study, the common type of social media used by the sample with the classification of FoMO Q1, Q2, Q3, and Q4 is Instagram. FoMO is a predictor for the usage of social media platforms, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube and Facebook (Blackwell et al., 2017; Franchina et al., 2018). FoMO is also a predictor of the frequency of social media use such as Foursquare, Tumblr, and Vine (Franchina et al., 2018). These phenomenons can be partially explained as some of the reasons for using social media are to make connections and share experiences (Gioia et al., 2021). While some of the reasons for using gadgets are for entertainment and to spend the spare time (Oulasvirta et al., 2012). This study found that respondents who used social media for >8 hours/day had more samples in FoMO Q4. The duration of 4-8 hours/day has higher samples in the Q3 FoMO classification. While the duration of 0-4 hours/day has more samples in the FoMO Q1 classification. These results indicate that the higher the duration of social media usage, the higher FoMO classification the samples will have.

Conclusion

Based on the research results, it can be concluded that there is no significant correlation between FoMO and gender, the correlation between FoMO and age group is not significant, and there is a significant correlation between FoMO and the duration of social media use. Future research is expected to be carried out with a more even distribution of the sample so that it can provide a more accurate demographic data of FoMO.

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Idznika Nurannisa Wibowo, Reyna Cesariyani R. Rusuldi, Almara Diva Puteri Arnapi, Vatine Adila, I Putu Agus Arsana, Hersati Prasetyo, Mahrumi Dewi Tri Utami, M. Ladrang P. Paramanindhito, Julian Benedict Swannjo, Ezrin Syariman bin Roslan, Danti Nur Indiastuti (2022)

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