Source: Alex J. Holte,The State Fear of Missing out Inventory: Development and Validation.”  et al. Telematics and Informatics Reports, Elsevier, 6 Apr. 2023, 

Background: This long article details different studies done on individuals who may experience FOMO in an everyday situation. Many of these individuals were categorized into different feelings of when they experienced this effect. The article details many different types of FOMO that could occur, one of the most common being experiencing FOMO while at work or missing work.

How I used it: This article helps to prove my point that FOMO can occur in anyone’s life and it does not have to do with social media. It also helps me to highlight how different types of FOMO have been heavily studied dating back to the early 2000’s.

Source: Andrew K. Przybylski a, et al. “Motivational, Emotional, and Behavioral Correlates of Fear of Missing Out.”  Computers in Human Behavior, Pergamon, 9 Apr. 2013,  

Background: I was able to find this article from reading down into the first source that I found, and this article details in depth the psychological aspect of FOMO and how it affects the brain. A study was able to be conducted on adults (Aged 22-65) rather than children in which they were examined on their overall well being. The hypothesis was that those who fulfilled their satisfaction for the day and did what they were supposed to do generally had a lower rate of FOMO. 

How I used it: The study reveals that their tested hypothesis was correct. However, what helped me in this paper is that the study was conducted in 2011, and there were exactly 50% male and 50% female who responded to the survey. This helped me prove the sexual differences of FOMO to narrow my research point.

3rd Source: “Association for Consumer Research – Acrwebsite.org.” www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v43/acr_vol43_1019794.pdf 

Background: This article discusses the basic argument that is being made in favor of social media. Individuals in the adolescent age group are specifically examined in this study. A poll was taken from students of a University on whether or not they experience FOMO, and 75% of the students surveyed corresponded social media use to experiencing feelings of missing out. 

How I used it: I believe that although this is the point that I am trying to refute, it helped me greatly when writing my rebuttal argument and proving my “worthy opponent” wrong. Further in the article, it highlights that those who experience FOMO more frequently also attribute it to scenarios outside of social media like family, friends, or coworkers.

Source: Christopher J. Budnick a, et al.The Fear of Missing out at Work: Examining Costs and Benefits to Employee Health and Motivation.” “Computers in Human Behavior, Pergamon, 10 Oct. 2019

Background: In the beginning of this article, it defines the idea of what workplace FOMO is, and how it can contribute to poor performance for the employee in their specific department. Different studies were taken and examined individual’s feelings of FOMO and what it made them feel like. Surveys were conducted where there were different outcomes and fears that the employees correlated it too, some of those being missing out on work information, fear of missing out on new work opportunities, and more.

How I used it: I used this article to further prove my point that FOMO is its own psychological disorder rather than something that contributes to other disorders. Although everyone may experience FOMO, the negative thoughts that reside in people’s minds are mostly different, which is why these surveys are conducted.

Source: Anxiety and stress severity are related to greater fear of missing out on rewarding experiences: A latent profile analysis

Background: This article published in the Psych Journal discusses the anxiety and depression that correlates with FOMO. However, something that is important for me to note in this article is that when studies were conducted on these individuals in particular, they were divided by sex, which can further narrow my results and analysis. A FOMO scale was used to survey these university students, which is basically a questionnaire the student can fill out for example “when I miss out on a planned get together it bothers me”. It was found that females generally experienced more FOMO like symptoms than men, but the men experienced more depressive symptoms than the females. The article made their research extremely accurate by removing any outsiders. For example, they removed 114 student’s replies that were careless or insufficient responses

How I used it: Although there were differences seen in sex for different symptoms, the article later puts out a disclaimer that the differences in scores between the females and males were not statistically significant. This helped me to prove that FOMO is an inevitable part of life that directly affects the brain rather than causing other underlying conditions.

Source: Dorit Alt, et al. “College Students’ Academic Motivation, Media Engagement and Fear of Missing Out.” Computers in Human Behavior, Pergamon, 12 Mar. 2015,  

Background: A study was conducted of 298 undergraduate students and attempted to prove that FOMO’s depressive symptoms had a direct correlation with social media use, much of the reasoning having to be because of the Millenial’s social attachment. The aim was to provide conclusions of a student’s academic motivation based on social media usage.

How I used it: I used this article to prove the counterintuitive idea to my thesis wrong. My idea was that the idea of FOMO is no different than envy. The results in the article could be assumed without any research.

Source:  Gupta, Mayank, and Aditya Sharma.  “Fear of Missing out: A Brief Overview of Origin, Theoretical Underpinnings and Relationship with Mental Health.” World Journal of Clinical Cases, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 6 July 2021

Background: This article provides a basic definition and overview of FOMO, and when it came about. It describes how it became such a phenomenon because of the social media crisis. It also goes over different effects that occur from people experiencing FOMO, some of these being lack of sleep, poor motivation, and physical wellbeing.

How I used it: This article helped me understand the basic concepts of FOMO. I used not only the definitions provided for these effects, but used the information given to also compare the social aspect of FOMO to a much broader perspective. For example, somebody could have the same effects from something not pertaining to social media.

Source: Smith, Richard. Proquest, Jan. 2007, Comprehending Envy-Proquest

Background: Similar to the other proquest source defining FOMO, this article goes over the basic concepts of envy and why many people feel envy towards certain things. It dives deep into the psychology of one’s well being and how that affects someone’s frequency of feeling envy

How I used it: This article was the most important to me out of any others because it provided me with something comparable to FOMO but with different research other than social media. It helped me to prove my argument that social media’s affects on teenagers feelings of FOMO is no different than an adults feelings of envy because of another external factor.