Centennials, FOMO, and Loneliness: An Investigation of the Impact of Social Networking and Messaging/VoIP Apps Usage During the Initial Stage of the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Elena Fumagalli,Marina Belen Dolmatzian,L J Shrum

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620739

Elena Fumagalli, Marina Belen Dolmatzian + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.620739

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Abstract

The current COVID-19 pandemic has had obvious, well-documented devastating effects on people's physical health. In this research, we investigate its potential effects on people's mental health. Many people have experienced social isolation, as countries attempt to stem the spread of the disease through confinement and other forms of social distancing. Intuitively, such social isolation may increase feelings of loneliness, and people may take logical steps to reduce their feelings of social isolation and loneliness. One route is through the use of social networking apps (e.g., Facebook, Instagram) and messaging and VoIP apps (e.g., WhatsApp, iMessage). In this research, we investigate the effects of pandemic-induced social isolation on social networking and messaging apps, and potential related effects on loneliness. We surveyed young adults (N = 334) who are part of the Centennial cohort (born after 1995) from three different countries (Italy, Argentina, UK) and obtained their screen time usage data over a 4-week period starting from mid-March 2020. This sampling procedure allowed us to obtain data from respondents who were experiencing different degrees of mandated social isolation (lockdowns), which enabled us to determine whether social network and messaging app usage increased as a function of social isolation, and to test potential effects on levels of loneliness. Results showed that only social network usage increased in the initial stage of confinement as a function of lockdown initiation. Additionally, social network app usage was associated with increased feelings of loneliness, and this relation was mediated by fear of missing out (FOMO). In contrast, messaging app usage was associated with decreased feelings of loneliness, and was unrelated to FOMO. These results suggest that technology may be useful for mitigating the impact of loneliness during social isolation but that it is necessary to promote usage of messaging and VoIP apps, rather than social networking apps, because they are directly associated with decreases in loneliness without increasing FOMO.

Highlights

As COVID-19 rapidly spread, reaching pandemic levels by early March 2020, many regional and national governments quickly instituted various measures to mitigate the spread within communities
We focus on smartphone apps usage, and given that we are interested in determining its effect on users’ loneliness, we distinguish between applications that are interactive by definition, such as WhatsApp or iMessage, and applications that are designed to foster active and passive–but not necessarily interactive–usage, such as Facebook and Instagram
This is the first empirical study to investigate the potential effects of physical isolation following COVID19 lockdowns on Centennials’ social network usage and feelings of loneliness

Summary

Introduction

As COVID-19 rapidly spread, reaching pandemic levels by early March 2020 (www.who.int), many regional and national governments quickly instituted various measures to mitigate the spread within communities. Even before the pandemic and its associated forced social isolation, research suggested that feelings of loneliness were on the rise, to the point of reaching what some referred to as epidemic levels (The Harris Poll, 2016; Noack, 2018; Twenge et al, 2019). One particular factor that may potentially mitigate increased loneliness following forced social isolation is the use of digital communication technologies, such as WhatsApp, Skype, and Zoom, as well as the use of social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Banskota et al (2020) suggest that smartphone applications (apps) that facilitate social communication may help older people stay connected with others, potentially lessening the impact of social isolation on feelings of loneliness. Given that younger people are the most frequent users of such technology, the positive effects of social communication technology may be even greater for them

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