A Network Analysis Approach to Understanding FOMO
FOMO stands for the “fear of missing out,” a common feeling where one believes that other people are living more fun and exciting lives. We’ve all experienced FOMO at some point in our lives, whether we’d like to admit it or not – from scrolling through our Instagram feeds, hearing stories from our friends about exciting events that we missed out on, or even just watching a show where the main character is living our dream life. The age of social media brought about a heightened intensity and prevalence of this feeling of FOMO, as other people’s daily lives became more readily accessible for all to see. While it’s no secret that social media and smartphone usage is correlated with an increased fear of missing out, this study by researchers at a Chinese University demonstrates these connections concretely using graph theory, strong ties, and network analysis.
The researchers constructed the following networks, representing the relationships between FOMO, smartphone addiction, social media use, inability to control craving, productivity loss, and more.
Fig 1. Network Representation of the Relationships Between FOMO, Smartphone Addiction, Social Media Use, etc.
Their study found that the “inability to control craving” and “productivity loss” nodes had the highest edge cost, indicating a strong relationship between the two. “Feeling anxious and lost” was the strongest central node based on betweenness, closeness, and strength. And finally, there were significant positive associations between FOMO, social media use, and smartphone addiction. The researchers also concluded that there was no difference between gender and intensity of FOMO and smartphone addiction.
This study provides an interesting quantitative perspective on a correlation that we all assume to be true, and incorporates a variety of different factors and related traits such as impulsivity and productivity. By representing these relationships as a network, we can analyze the edge costs to quantify the strength of these relationships. The stronger the tie, the more closely related the two traits are, as demonstrated by the strong tie between the inability to control craving and productivity loss. So, next time you’re feeling a bit of FOMO, remember this network analysis and try to weaken the tie by logging off your social media and putting down your phone!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756322100409X