The Effects of Social Media and Self-Esteem on the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) and Delinquent Behavior
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2017-05
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Florida Southern College
Abstract
Social media and self-esteem are two highly researched topics that continuously have a daily impact on college students’ behaviors. For example, students communicate with one another about upcoming events, homework assignments, and the latest news on such media platforms as Facebook messenger, GroupMe, and Snapchat. Self-esteem, too, plays a key role in the college student’s experiences, influencing both positive and negative personal outlooks– and subsequent resulting behaviors.
The growing interest in the topic of the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) has loosely been credited to society’s mounting exploitation of social media. It is defined as a sociological concept pertaining to the social elements of a person’s feelings of missing out in any particular activity or involvement with other people (Hetz, Dawson, & Cullen, 2015; Vera, 2016). This also includes the feeling associated with wanting something, such as a newly released piece of technology (e.g. iPhone 7), that someone else possesses or displays (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell, 2013). For example, feelings of missing out may be present in the following situations: when a person’s friend group is hanging out and said person cannot be there, when a person utilizes an excess amount of time on social media to keep tabs on their peers, or when a person believes their experiences are not as rewarding as someone else’s. This overall emotion of feeling left out can impact any person at any given moment. However, college students may be particularly susceptible of FoMO because they are presumed to be easily influenced by their peers.
Description
Honors Thesis Spring 2017
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Keywords
Social media, Self-esteem, Fear of missing out, Delinquent behaviors