Psychological and behavioral outcomes of social media-induced fear of missing out at the workplace

Anushree Tandon,Amandeep Dhir,Nazrul Islam,Shalini Talwar,Matti Mäntymäki

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.07.036

Abstract

The intense proliferation of social media platforms into every facet of human lives has engaged researchers' attention towards understanding their adverse influences, referred to as the dark side of social media (DoSM) in the evolving literature. A relatively unexplored context in this regard is employees' personal use of social media during work hours and its impact on work-related outcomes. Since using social media during work hours can have implications for work performance and productivity, the lack of research in the area needs to be addressed by scholars sooner rather than later. Specifically, it is important to understand the drivers and outcomes of such behaviour. We have thus conceptualized a theoretical model based on the associations among individual tendencies (exhibitionism and voyeurism), fear of missing out (FoMO), and individual-level psychological (compulsive use of social media) and behavioral (work performance decrement and procrastination) outcomes of social media use during work hours. Grounded in the stressor-strain-outcomes (SSO) framework, the hypothesized associations were tested by a path analysis of 312 responses collected from individuals working in the United States. The results confirmed significant relationships between individual tendencies and FoMO, as well as psychological and behavioural outcomes. The findings contribute to the evolving literature around DoSM in the workplace and offer useful and practical insights.

Highlights

The fear of missing out (FoMO) has garnered significant attention from scholars in the recent past
The results indicate that the control variables have no significant influence on any of the dependent variables, which implies that the employed socio-demographic variables had no confounding effect on Compulsive use of social media (CUS), work performance decrement, or procrastination
The present study aimed at providing new insights into the ante cedents and consequences of FoMO for an individual employee

Summary

Introduction

The fear of missing out (FoMO) has garnered significant attention from scholars in the recent past. This phenomenon commonly refers to an individual’s apprehensions or concerns about missing socially or personally gratifying experiences that others might be having. FoMO has been associated with the dark side of social media (DoSM) (e.g., Talwar et al, 2019), which refers to the posited negative implications of social media use on individual wellbeing, such as in terms of a heightened experience of loneliness (Appel et al, 2020), a posited higher use of these platforms by narcissists (James et al, 2017), and strategic self-presentation vis-a-vis an individual’s true self (Jang et al, 2018).

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