Online Social Media Fatigue and Psychological Wellbeing
A Study of Compulsive Use, Fear of Missing out, Fatigue, Anxiety and Depression
Imagine this: You’re scrolling through Instagram, stalling before you begin that nagging chore, when you see that all your friends are at the park! You should really get started on your work, but it’s beautiful out. You could be missing a truly amazing day if you stay behind.
How many more perfect summer days will there be? You might ask yourself. I can probably just do the chore tomorrow.
Or maybe this is more like you: You’ve got a busy day tomorrow and need to get up early, yet you’re still on Facebook watching videos. You almost tear yourself away, when you see that the Johnsons took their kids to the beach yesterday. I should do more outings like that, you think. The summer break will be over before I know it.
If you can relate to either of the above scenarios, then you’ve experienced FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out). FOMO is defined as an apprehension or concern about missing out on an experience.
Have you ever noticed yourself feeling a pull to continue checking social media in these instances? Or the opposite, turning away from social media feeling depleted?
If you have, you're not alone. An increasing number of people are straying from platforms because of social media fatigue—that feeling of being mentally exhausted after being overwhelmed by information, technology, or communication.
Researchers Amandeep Dhir, Yossiri Yossatom, Puneet Kaur, and Sufen Chen uncovered why this happens in a 2018 study they conducted on adolescents. Below, we dive into what they found and what it means for you and/or your teen.
Why Do I Feel So Exhausted by Social Media?
After surveying more than a thousand teens, Dhir and their colleagues found that severe FOMO made it harder for teens to control their social media use. They also found that this compulsive use of social media was associated with social media fatigue, which was linked to anxiety and depression.
Checking social media obsessively could lead you to feel exhausted by social networking platforms, which could potentially hurt your mental health. However, more research is needed to confirm that this is the case.
Why Do I Experience FOMO and How Does It Affect My Health?
This could be a blog unto itself, but the short answer is that research suggests people who are dissatisfied with their lives or who are struggling emotionally are more likely to suffer from FOMO.
Dhir and their fellow researchers added support to the idea that FOMO could have a negative effect on your mental health. Previous studies have demonstrated that people who experience severe FOMO are more likely to suffer from depression, insomnia, eating disorders, and anxiety. This doesn't necessarily mean that FOMO is the cause of these conditions, but we can't rule it out just yet.
How Can I Avoid the Negative Health Effects of Compulsive Social Media Use?
Based on the findings in their 2018 study, the authors have two clear messages:
Use social media in moderation.
Easier said than done, right? Well, thanks to smartphone features like Screen Time and Digital Wellbeing that allow you to monitor use and set limits, moderation is difficult but within reach.
To all parents—keep an eye out for excessive social media use.
Watchful supervision and support might help fend off the negative side effects of social media outlined above.
People have pointed out that before social media, there was the “keeping up with the Jones” mentality—the feeling that you need to buy a similarly expensive car or go on the same pricey vacation as your neighbours to be successful and happy. Although the feeling is not new, social media has intensified it by providing us with a never-ending flow of FOMO-inducing updates. And you guessed it: All that time spent consuming this information could harm your mental health.
The antidote may be using social media sparingly, but don't be too hard on yourself if you or your child’s social media use has been high lately. Setting healthy boundaries around social media is easier than ever and it's never too late.
Study Objective & Methods
Online Social Media Fatigue and Psychological Wellbeing—A Study of Compulsive Use, Fear of Missing out, Fatigue, Anxiety and Depression
Amandeep Dhir, PhD; Yossiri Yossatorn, MA; Puneet Kaur, PhD; Sufen Chen, PhD
Published in International Journal of Information Management, 2018.
Dhir, Yossatorn, Kaur, and Chen studied whether compulsive social media use and FOMO among teens was related to social media fatigue and whether social media fatigue could contribute to an increase in anxiety or depression. They used a repeated cross-sectional methodology to study this by surveying two groups of adolescents from North India. The first group had 1554 students and the second group, surveyed a few months later, had 1144 students.
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This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our E Certification training: a 3-course program for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
