Adolescence is an age where one experiences a gap between what is expected and the reality. They want to have what others have on social media, be it materials, experiences, partners, or other people's behaviour. Unmet psychological needs such as autonomy, competence and relatedness are things that influence this in adolescents. (Se'u & Rahayu, 2022). Therefore, FOMO behaviour mostly occurs in adolescents. According to JWT Intelligence, 70% of people aged 18-34 relate to FOMO, which is the age of late adolescence to early adulthood. However, late adolescence is more associated with FOMO.
FOMO is one of the factors that influence social media addiction (Fathadika & Afriani, 2018). Apart from FOMO, social anxiety (Azka, Firdaus, & Kurbiadewi, 2018) and loneliness (Miftaburrahmah & Harabap, 2020) can also affect social media addiction. Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell (2013) said that everyone who experiences FOMO can allow themselves to be tied to social media. Research conducted by the Australian Psychological Society states that the average teenager plays social media for 2.7 hours per day and is declared to experience FOMO. This research also states that teenagers experience FOMO more (50%) than adults (25%).
Methodology
The research method used in this research is qualitative research that uses the library research method by collecting information by reading articles, journals, and books that focus on the topic "Social Media That Affects FOMO In Teens" and collecting data through analysing previous research that discusses related themes.
Result and Finding
FOMO is an important psychological condition in the digital age. Several surveys and studies have addressed the condition of FOMO with psychological scales and physiological monitoring. Some of these surveys and studies have examined FOMO and its relationship with social media use, factors that influence FOMO behavior, and the impact that can occur from it. Preliminary evidence suggests that FOMO is age-related and more prevalent in adolescents.
FOMO is any activity done to stay connected to other people's activities. The basis of FOMO is when individuals feel lost, someone who easily experiences feelings of irritability, anxiety, and inadequacy. All of that can make individuals feel left behind because they cannot do what they are seeing. FOMO syndrome has a bad impact on adolescents, namely the lack of social interaction with their peers, losing useful experiences from others, anxiety symptoms, and sleep deprivation. FOMO behaviour mostly occurs in adolescents because adolescence is a transition between childhood and early adulthood which causes changes in physical, cognitive, emotional, and psychosocial.
Research shows that the intensity of social media use and FOMO are related. The greater the intensity of social media use, the greater a person's tendency to FOMO. This happens because the person is always updated about what is happening on social media, thus encouraging the person to always want to try the same thing as others and become FOMO. Conversely, the intensity of social media use can also be influenced by FOMO behavior. Initially, a person has a tendency to FOMO because they are afraid of being left behind compared to their friends. From there, they started to access social media more to stay updated with the latest information and trends in order to be accepted by their group.
Someone who experiences FOMO will feel happy and create a sense of addiction in accessing social media. Conversely, if the individual cannot access social media freely, it will cause feelings of discomfort, anxiety, and restlessness. They will consider themselves uninformed and disconnected from their social environment. For fear of missing out on information, they start accessing social media for longer periods of time, without even thinking about the place and time. This then triggers bad behaviors such as always checking social media all the time, having no empathy for the social environment and prioritizing social media, always wanting to know other people's lives, having a curiosity about the latest issues, and behaving extravagantly because they don't want to miss the latest trends.
FOMO, social media, anxiety and adolescence are interconnected. Adolescence is an age that is synonymous with anxiety and other psychological conditions because it is an age of transition from childhood to adulthood. Anxiety and other psychological conditions such as self-distrust can be an influencing factor as well as the impact of FOMO. Social media is also affected in this regard. A person may experience FOMO due to anxiety and fear of missing out on the latest information. From there, the intensity of social media use begins to increase. The more often they access social media, it can lead to insecurity because they are always comparing their lives with other people's lives on social media. In higher stages, it can lead to conditions such as depression and obsession with social media which can cause a decrease in quality of life.
An example of the FOMO phenomenon that has occurred in Indonesia is crypto. Crypto coins were trending and made many people fall victim to FOMO. Because of its popularity, some well-known celebrities in Indonesia even released their own crypto coins and claimed that the coin was able to "go to the moon". Like other cases of FOMO, this trend is also dwindling and harming many people. Another example is the recent viral food trend, cromboloni. Initially, not many people knew about this food. But as more and more people discussed it on social media, more and more content creators and food vloggers joined in reviewing the food. Some even make it at home and use this as an opportunity to open their own business.
