The Relationship Between Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and Academic Concentration Among Social Media-Using University Students

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and academic concentration among 96 university students who actively use social media. FOMO refers to a pervasive apprehension that others are having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, which drives compulsive social media checking and potentially disrupts learning by lowering concentration during lectures, reading, or assignments (Przybylski et al., 2013). Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected through a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire measuring FOMO (15 items) and academic concentration (15 items), with the sample size determined using the Lemeshow et al. (1990) formula. Data were analyzed descriptively using Mean ± SD categorization and through simple linear regression using IBM SPSS Statistics. Results showed that both FOMO (M = 41.84, SD = 5.84) and academic concentration (M = 44.02, SD = 3.78) were at moderate levels. Simple linear regression revealed a statistically significant negative relationship between FOMO and academic concentration (B = -0.139, t = -2.124, p = 0.036), with FOMO explaining 4.6% of the variance in academic concentration (R = 0.214, R² = 0.046). These findings indicate that higher FOMO is associated with lower academic concentration, consistent with the Working Memory Model, which explains that social media notifications create extraneous cognitive load that depletes the capacity needed for effective learning. It is concluded that FOMO is a relevant risk factor for academic concentration among social-media-using university students, and future research should examine mediating variables such as sleep quality and learning motivation.