Published in October 2020, Bloemen and Coninck present a study they performed which examines the role of family in correlation to social media use in adolescents and the concept of FoMO (Fear of Missing Out). The concept of FoMO has been explored in previous journal articles, and occurs when three needs are not met: the competence to participate in the world, personal independence, and feelings of social connectedness (Beyens et al., 2016; Przybylski et al., 2013).

The hypotheses within the study predicted that:

1. Adolescents from intact families will experience lower levels of FoMO than those belonging to non-intact families,
2. Those who have high quality relationships with their parents will also experience less FoMO on social media, and
3. Teenagers whose parents have a high-quality relationship with one another will also experience less FoMO than adolescents whose parents have a low-quality relationship.

(Bloemen, N., & De Coninck, D. 2020, p. 3)

The hypotheses for the work performed by Bloemen and Coninck suggests that the greater support an adolescent receives, the less likely they are to feel FoMO in relation to their social media activity. This theory indicates that there is a strong and positive link between social media use and family structure, relationship quality with parents, as well as the relationship quality between parents. Although previous literature has indicated this to be accurate, the findings within Bloeman and Coninck’s 2020 article provided a back-flip, opposite view. It was found that adolescents from intact families experienced MORE FoMO than those who belonging to non-intact families. It is discussed that this could be in relation to adolescents from non-intact families taking on more responsibility at a younger age regarding household duties or caregiving for other siblings, resulting in independence. Interestingly, it was also found that teenagers from non-intact families reported a greater number of social support available to them – potentially due to becoming more reliant on relationships outside of the family unit.

Reflecting upon my personal relationship with social media, I would agree that these findings throughout Bloemen and Coninck’s research to be accurate. Coming from a nuclear, intact family has not resulted in experiencing less FoMO and the feeling of connectedness throughout platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have enabled me to keep up to date with my inner social circles. I do begin to experience feelings of being on the outer if I’m not active on these sites at least once a day, and this could be due partly to the rise of online profiles being introduced while I was an adolescent myself. As a GenY, MySpace was all the rage and a great way to form new social relationships as well as stayed connected with friends. This was an important part of my development and fostered creativity online, I guess you could say it was the gateway to social media addiction!

Although Bloemen and Coninck’s study indicates that adolescents from non-intact families experience less FoMO, I would be interested in learning more about how this is effected by the contact time of parents. As my generation are now raising children within the social media climate, there are increased research possibilities with both parents and adolescents active on social media the effects this has on their relationships and development of FoMO.

Photo by Alexandre Desane on Unsplash

References

Beyens, I., Frison, E., Eggermont, S. (2016). “I don’t want to miss a thing”: Adolescents’ fear of missing out and its relationship to adolescents’ social needs, Facebook use, and Facebook related stress. Computers in Human Behavior, 64, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.08

Bloemen, N., & De Coninck, D. (2020). Social Media and Fear of Missing Out in Adolescents: The Role of Family Characteristics. Social Media + Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120965517

Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841–1848. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2013.02.014