Social Media and Fear of Missing Out in Adolescents: The Role of Family Characteristics

This article highlights the role of family structure, parental relationships quality, parental quality and parental style as factors affecting the rate of adolescents’ media use and the development of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO). Bloemen and Coninck (2020) put forth several research questions and hypotheses related to family characteristics associated with FoMO in adolescents. Through an online survey limited to 831 high school respondents, this article opens doors to future research without offering strong, solid answers to the raised propositions. The authors concede that “the dynamic of FoMO is more complicated than initially assumed” (p.9).

Being the parent of a teenage daughter, I was eager to find answers to teenagers’ preoccupation with social media. The authors cite literature that rationalises FoMO to be a mediator that fulfils adolescents basic needs of social connectedness and competence in the millennial world. However, in the same breath they warn on social media overuse to lead to symptoms that are traditionally related to substance-related addictions. The juxtaposition of the impact of social media and FoMO is perceived throughout this article.

Family context and parents become crucial factors to the extent and quality of their children’s use of social media. Parental control, support, appreciation and involvement are various ways which may contribute to or impede adolescents against FoMO. One striking assumption that was dismissed through the survey was that adolescents from non-intact families experienced more FoMo. Adolescents from non-intact families were seen more adept at achieving personal independence and social connectedness thereby, accounting to developing less FoMO. I am not in acquiescence with this finding and seem more at sync with openness in family communications, collective family efficacy and  parents’ positive perceptions about social media use , as promoted in  Procentese, Gatti and Napoli’s (2019, p.8) article to be more insightful.

Thus, this article seems not to have been successful in arriving at definite answers to its hypotheses, owing to small, limited sample size and inherent complexity in family structure. A broader family context in the development of FoMO and social media overuse may yield more tangible results.

Word count: 344 words

References:

Bloemen, N., & De Coninck, D. (2020). Social Media and Fear of Missing Out in Adolescents: The Role of Family Characteristics. Social Media + Society,6(4), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305120965517

Procentese, F., Gatti, F., & Di Napoli, I. (2019). Families and social media use: The role of parents’ perceptions about social media impact on family systems in the relationship between family collective efficacy and open communication. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(24), 1-11. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/10.3390/ijerph16245006