The FOMO of Social Media and Decreased Well-Being

Crypto and social media share the fear of missing out (FOMO) psychological angst. Users of Steem are positioned to experience both. People who get into crypto can get addicted to the drive to make money, like gambling. The fear of missing out on something important also happens a lot on social media. People get excited and interested by reading things happening in social media, or peering into the lives of others.

Getting and giving attention in the attention economy has many desire the "connection" provided. Missing out on things happening elsewhere and the missed opportunity to be part of that inter-connected attention economy can bring anxiety and the FOMO.

The University of Pennsylvania has a new study out that suggests extended exposure to social media might cause depression and loneliness. It appears that reducing use of social media to 10 minutes per day can reduce that depression and loneliness. But realistically, is that going to happen in our modern day and age?

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The study, titled "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression", was published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. Other studies looking at social media have been less comprehensive and realistic to show how social media can harm one's well-being. Instead of running a battery of tests in a lab, or asking people to completely avoid using social media, this study tapped into usage data that is tracked by iPhones.

Data was collected from screenshots the 143 student participants submitted. It showed the average time they spent on the top 3 most popular social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Participants were put into two groups: one was control group that asked them to keep up their average social media usage; and one experimental group that had to limit their social media usage to 10 minutes per day on each platform.

The resulting psychological state of well-being would be measured for the experiments duration, which included assessing states of fear of missing out, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

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The study period last three weeks of sharing social media usage with the researchers. Surveys were requested from the participants which tracked their mood and well-being, to which the data was compared. After analysis, the conclusion seemed clear: decreasing social media use improves both mood and well-being. Melissa Hunt, associate director of clinical training in Penn's Psychology Department, said:

"Using less social media than you normally would leads to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness. These effects are particularly pronounced for folks who were more depressed when they came into the study."

As some might have realized, social media doesn't necessarily make you more socially connected. Using social media less can make you feel less lonely. Hunt explains it as:

Some of the existing literature on social media suggests there's an enormous amount of social comparison that happens. When you look at other people's lives, particularly on Instagram, it's easy to conclude that everyone else's life is cooler or better than yours."

Since the study only looked at Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, researchers don't want to conclude that the same thing happens for all social media platforms. But it seems to indicate it does. The study only looked at students o average between 18-22 years old. Other age groups and different settings than school may have different results as well.

Any social media user could benefit from learning about this study, and possibly implement some changes to follow. Hunt says:

" When you're not busy getting sucked into clickbait social media, you're actually spending more time on things that are more likely to make you feel better about your life... In general, I would say, put your phone down and be with the people in your life"

On Steem we may also tend to fall into the FOMO of social media and crypto, since there is money involved that we may try to not miss out on making. I think this can apply a doubled pressure on our states of well-being. We don't want to miss in the attention economy or the monetary economy.

What do you think? Do you feel like you're missing out when you're not on Steem, and maybe feel more depressed or lonely being on Steem?

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References:

• Social media use increases depression and loneliness, study finds
• Social media makes you lonely and depressed, study says
• Melissa G. Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson, Jordyn Young. No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2018; 751 DOI: 10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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