Hatice AYGAR, Saniye GÖKTAŞ, Sevil AKBULUT ZENCİRCİ, Melike ALAİYE, MUHAMMED FATİH ÖNSÜZ, SELMA METİNTAŞ

Association between fear of missing out in social media and problematic internet use in university students

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the association between the fear of missing out (FoMO) in social media and problematic Internet use in university students and to evaluate the related sociodemographic characteristics. Method: This was a cross-sectional study conducted with university students at Eskisehir Osmangazi University in 2016. In this study, 463 students were reached by multistage sampling. Problematic Internet use was measured by the Problematic Internet Usage Scale (PIUS) and FoMO in social media was measured by the Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMOs). Mann Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test (Bonferroni correction), Spearman correlation analysis, multiple linear regression, and multiple logistic regression analyses were used. Results: The students’ mean age (SD) was 21.0 (1.7) years, 54.9% (254) were male, and 91.4% of the students had Internet access at their accommodation; 74.5% were using the Internet for social sharing. The mean scores (SD) for PIUS and FoMOs were 65.19 (22.34) and 22.37 (7.41), respectively. Male students and students using the Internet for social sharing and reporting spending more than four hours per day on the Internet and the smartphone took higher mean scores from PIUS and FoMOs. Gender, Internet use for social sharing, and daily duration of smartphone use were found to be variables affecting the FoMOs score. After adjusting for affective factors, a positive relation was found between the FoMO and problematic Internet use. Conclusion: In the study, the use of Internet for social sharing, time per day spent with the smartphone, and problematic Internet use were found to be factors affecting the FoMO. Increasing problematic Internet use and FoMO in university students are significant forms of addiction requiring preventive measures.

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