FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and how it affects College Students at Work

Running Head: FOMO AND HOW IT AFFECTS COLLEGE STUDENTS AT WORK

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and how it affects College Students in the Workplace

Eda Talushllari

The University of Texas at Tyler

December 6, 2015

FOMO AND HOW IT AFFECTS COLLEGE STUDENTS AT WORK 1

Table of Contents

Chapter 1_____________________________________________________________________4

Introduction_____________________________________________________________4

Research Problem______________________________________________________________6

Significance of the Study__________________________________________________8

Research Questions______________________________________________________10

Chapter 2____________________________________________________________________11

Literature Review_______________________________________________________11

Social Media & Its Relevance to Work and Productivity_________________________11

Feelings Associated with Using Social Media Frequently________________________12

Addictive Nature of Social Media & What Students Think about Using Social Media__15

Passive Facebook Usage__________________________________________________16

Fear of Missing Out_____________________________________________________17

Chapter 3____________________________________________________________________19

Research Methods_______________________________________________________19

Sample Procedure_______________________________________________________19

Instruments & Scales ____________________________________________________20

Fear of Missing Out Scale___________________________________________20


Work Effort Scale_________________________________________________20

Attitudes Towards and Personal Use of Social Network Sites at the Workplace_21

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale________________________________________21

Data Analysis & Methods_________________________________________________21

Study Period___________________________________________________________23

Ethical Considerations___________________________________________________23

Chapter 4____________________________________________________________________23

Anticipated Findings_____________________________________________________23

Chapter 5____________________________________________________________________24

Summary______________________________________________________________24

Conclusion____________________________________________________________25

Recommendations for Further Study________________________________________26

Definition of Terms____________________________________________________________26

References___________________________________________________________________28

Appendix 1__________________________________________________________________32

Fear of Missing Out Scale_________________________________________________32

Work Effort Scale_______________________________________________________33

Attitudes Towards and Personal Use of Social Network Sites at the Workplace_______34


Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale______________________________________________35


FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and how it affects College Students in the Workplace

Chapter 1

Introduction

Wherever you go, you are constantly seeing people on their phones. They could be taking

a selfie, looking up something or using their phones as a GPS. If they are young, then they are

probably using it to view social media. Social media has completely changed the way we view

things. In the past, if you wanted to find out what somebody was doing that day, you would call

them, but nowadays we can look at their Instagram, or we can see their story on Snapchat of

what they did. Everywhere you go it seems that people are posting, tweeting, liking, sharing,

instagramming, and snapchatting with one another. It has almost become like a competition to

have the most followers, friends, likes, and so forth. The way we communicate through social

media and the negative consequences of interacting this way has not been fully studied.

Social media is an evolving world where people can post and share bits and pieces of

their lives to other people, such as their acquaintances, friends, and/or family (Lanham, 2010).

Social media is defined as being available at the tip of your fingers with easy access, being

collaborative, and most importantly being focused on technology (Lanham, 2010). The younger

crowds are the ones who mostly use social media and in fact, about 72% of adults who are under

thirty, use social media platforms (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, & Zickuhr, 2010). In 2012, the

average student spent “47 minutes a day on Facebook” alone (Sponcil & Gitimu, 2012).

Whenever you think about other types of social media, like Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and

even a professional one, LinkedIn, the number of times spent visiting and interacting on these

social media increases tremendously.


It is important to note that not all social media are bad, and when used sparingly, there is

no doubt that it can be a good and healthy thing. Research by Sponcil and Gitimu (2012) suggest

that people under thirty are the ones who most frequently use social media sites because they are

at a time where they are trying to figure out who they are, and where they are in the grand

scheme of things. Not only is this true, but the main reason why college students use social

media is because they want to connect with their family and friends (Utz, Muscanell, Khalid,

2015). Even if these students are not talking to their family and friends every day, it is still very

important for them to see what their family and friends are up to (Sponcil & Gitimu, 2012). They

have a constant need to know what their peers and family are doing.

Social media has shifted a lot throughout the years. A while ago, blogging was how

people communicated to one another, but now it seems that students are moving away from

blogging style related social media, called “macro-blogging”, to social media that allows users to

periodically update their status, called “micro-blogging” – Facebook is an example of micro-

blogging (Lenhart et al., 2010). New research however takes it a step further and claims that

social media sites like Facebook are being used less and less and “photo-sharing” style apps, like

the “self-destructing app Snapchat” are being used more and more (Utz & Khalid, 2015).

Students seem like they are talking less and less now, and instead of writing about something

exciting happening in their lives, they would rather take a picture and post it on platforms such as

Snapchat or Instagram. The trouble occurs whenever college students rely too much on social

media, because they are not only creating a sort online “virtual identity” but, also an “ideal self”

in where the ultimate goal is to earn the most likes and shares (Sponcil & Gitimu, 2012).

Whoever has the most likes and shares on a photo or a status, wins the implied popularity

contest. This online perceived self comes with a price since more and more college students are


starting to see that feelings of jealousy and envy towards one another are occurring (Verduyn et

al., 2015). This feeling of jealousy and envy are one of the causes of the fear of missing out, or

FOMO.

Social media becomes even worse whenever people aimlessly scroll through it.

Oftentimes, whenever students view social media, such as Facebook, students are not

communicating but simply mindlessly scrolling through their newsfeed (Soncil & Gitimu, 2012).

An active student, however, would post, comment, and like other people’s status, pictures, and so

forth (Verduyn et al., 2015). Simply viewing information on social media without being active

and interacting with anyone is called being passive (Verduyn et al., 2015). Viewing Facebook

passively comes with a price as FOMO increases (Verduyn et al., 2015). FOMO has been getting

a lot of attention in the news lately, but in laymen’s terms, FOMO is defined as a constant fear

that others might be having fun and you are not there to experience it with them and you feel as

if you are missing out (Przybylski, Murayama, DeHaan, & Gladwell 2013). Hedges (2014)

mentioned that in addition to social media, FOMO is also prevalent in the workplace and has

been known to cause people feeling withdrawn and disappointed in their work environment,

which occurs most whenever people view social media. Other research suggests that when social

media is combined with FOMO, people experienced sadness and overall feelings of depression,

“general unhappiness”, and “negative mood or depressed feelings” (Przybylski et al., 2013). Not

surprisingly, a lot of young adults have experienced FOMO, almost seventy-five percent of them

(Przybylski et al., 2013). Therefore with more college students entering the workforce, and with

social media use increasing tremendously, the purpose of this study is to assess how FOMO

might impact the productivity of current college students who use social media in the workplace.

Research Problem


Whenever college students accept a job offer, they are expected by their employer to

work diligently and not waste company time with frivolous things such as checking social media.

Oftentimes, due to a variety of reasons, many employees still engage in social media, despite the

wishes of their employer. Not only is this considered stealing company time, but also some

companies have very strict rules for employees engaging in social media (Lanham, 2010). Social

media creates a huge threat for the employers, because some employees can unknowingly share

very private company material, and some employers even go as far as having installed programs

to view if their employees are using social media while on the job (Lanham, 2010).

With this huge risk associated, it should be obvious that current college students should

not be using social media while at work. Of course, many of them do, and FOMO is one reason

why college students tend to check their social media in the workplace. According to Przybylski

et al. (2013), FOMO is caused by an urge to continuously stay up to date with what other people

are doing; it almost seems like they cannot help it. In fact, other research shows that FOMO can

be quite addicting as explained later on in the literature review (Chaudhry, 2015). Since college

students have an urge to be up to date with what their friends and family are doing, then how will

they stop themselves from checking these social media so that they can focus on completing their

assignments at work?

In social media, a lot of people want to only show themselves in the best positive light,

while the negative life progressions are never posted or talked about (Verduyn et al., 2015). So

then how does a college student feel if all of their friends and family are posting on social media

about doing well in life? Does experiencing FOMO from social media while at work, make them

want to become more productive, or less productive? Therefore, the goal of this research is to

assess how FOMO might impact the productivity of current college students who use social


media in the workplace. Individuals who are current college students, and are employed for at

least 20 hours a week, will be asked a series of measures that will determine if FOMO has any

effects on their productivity in the workplace.

Significance of the Study

Just Googling FOMO can show up many articles from Forbes, to the New York Times,

but whenever it is put into perspective, FOMO is still a relatively new and unexplored aspect of

social media usage. Perhaps the reason why it is so new is because not a lot of people have heard

of it. However, as more and more people start using social media, it is expected that the research

of FOMO might flourish.

Whenever college student workers are viewing social media while at work, they are able

to see many posts by many friends and family members, and if these friends or family members

are perceived as having more fun than they are, then FOMO has occurred. Safronova (2015)

suggests that whenever an employee sees these posts, especially in the summer, they think

“they’re having a fabulous summer while you, poor soul trapped in a cubicle, are not.” Although

Safronova humorously stated this, her argument is not an invalid one. Even though someone

might catch up with an old friend on Facebook, they can still feel poorly when they find out how

much their friends have accomplished (Verduyn et al., 2015).

When scrolling through social media, FOMO might occur, and hence employers would

have not only a disengaged employee who is wasting company time by checking their social

media, but also one that is affected by FOMO. In recent studies FOMO has said to cause envious

feelings and it is also experienced more by younger students (Verduyn et al., 2015; Przybylski et

al., 2013). A similar situation happens whenever FOMO occurs while viewing social media in


the workplace. If a friend of an individual posted about getting a really high paying and

prestigious job, and they saw this post while working, Verduyn (2015) suggests that it would

potentially cause a feeling of envy. This envy might affect their productivity and their attitude

towards their job and, like Hedges (2014) stated, they might experience a lingering feeling of

“never being in the right place with our careers.”

Employees in the workplace already waste a considerable amount of time from gossiping,

online shopping, or browsing the web (Conner, 2013). Social media is a major contributor to all

this time being lost (Conner, 2013) and viewing social media in the workplace is costing

employers about $650 billion dollars in losses (Federman, 2013). Millennials or people born

between the years of 1982 to 2004, are the ones who waste the most time at work due to having

quick access to the Internet and their mobile phones (Conner, 2013). Since most of the existing

or current college students are Millennials, companies are going to have to figure out how to

make work challenging and interesting so that colleges student workers will not be tempted to

use or spend company time to check social media. This way the employee is happy and content

and employers can make sure that their employees are not wasting company time.

These are the kinds of situations that employers need to be aware of, especially since

younger students are now in the workplace. According to Mesiter and Willyerd (2014), by 2020

“employers will face a huge challenge: to recruit, develop and motivate employees of all ages

and backgrounds.” In addition, by 2020, it will be even more difficult for managers to hire,

cultivate and inspire the work force since there will be “five generations of employees” who will

be working in the same roof (Mesiter & Willyerd, 2014). If the use of social media continues to

increase, employers are going to have to figure out how to tackle issues such as FOMO in the


workplace and make sure that their employees are not only content, but challenged and engaged

while at work.

Research Questions(s)

The purpose of this study is to assess how FOMO might impact the productivity of current

college students who use social media in the workplace.

In addition, the following questions will be answered:

1. What are the negative emotional effects of experiencing FOMO through Social Media in

the workplace and what do students think about using social media in the workplace?

2. How might productivity be affected by using Social Media in the workplace?

Assumptions: For the purpose of this study, it is safe to assume that all of the students who will

take the surveys are current four year university students and are working at least twenty hours a

week. In addition to this, they need to use social media on a daily basis while on the job. We will

also assume that they are being truthful and honest when taking the survey measures.

Limitations: In this research proposal, social media is referred to as Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn. The limitation in this research study is that this study will be

only geared to current working college students. The information gathered from this study will

be all online based, so we cannot prove that the persons taking it are current college students who

are working twenty hours a week, but it will only be distributed to college sites like a University

of Houston Facebook page or University of Texas at Tyler Blackboard. We are assuming that

college students know how honestly answer survey measures based on the scales that we will

provide.


Chapter 2

Literature Review

As social media continues to rise, so do the issues associated with it. More and more

people are using not only using social media to keep up with family and friends, but are

comparing themselves with their family and friends, which is usually when FOMO occurs. This

literature review will cover social media and its relevance to work and productivity, the feelings

associated with using social media frequently, the addictive nature of social media and what

students think about social media, passive Facebook usage, and finally Fear of Missing Out.

Social Media and its Relevance to Work and Productivity

Lanham, (2010) whose wrote in an employment law commentary article, discussed

Millennials in his research studies and found out that 73% of teenagers use social networking

sites, while 72% of 17-29 year olds used social networking sites, with Facebook being the largest

social networking in use. The bulk of the article was spent discussing social media and why the

use of it during work might be a problem (Lanham, 2010). The article argues that in order for

companies to have an effective social media program, they need to have both a written policy

and train managers in that policy, but the greatest method is to let employees know to keep their

individual and professional online lives separate (Lanham, 2010).

Employee average fifty-six minutes a day on social networking sites whenever they are at

work, and about 81% of employees admitted to using social networking sites at work, as stated

on a recent survey in Ireland (“William Fry”, 2013). There were 47% of employers who thought

that accessing social media sites while at work diminishes productivity (“William Fry”, 2013).

Whenever you compare these statistics to those of Millennial college students, who are known


for wasting the most company time, a whopping 2 hours is wasted each day while on the job

(Conner, 2013). This equates to forty hours of month that are wasted, just by Millennials alone

(Conner, 2013). If we assumed the average pay of a Millennial at work is $15 an hour then they

would be wasting $600.00 of company money. More shockingly, Conner (2013) said that

Millennials use their mobile devices for up to 7.5 hours in a day.

The fear of missing out is a major contributor to why college students are viewing social

media. Not to mention that there are a lot of negative feelings associated with FOMO, as you

will soon discover. Social media also may cause employees to divert their attention to their

networking sites, instead of their job, and may cause employees to become less productive. In

addition to this, managers are starting to figure out that using social media while at work is not

always a good thing, and can lead to many consequences on the perspective of the employee who

may be experiencing FOMO.

Feelings Associated with using Social Media Frequently

There is no doubt that daily social media usage has negative effects on individuals. In

fact, Moreno et al. (2011) wanted to see if you could determine “depression references” through

Facebook statuses. She and the other researchers evaluated the statuses of 200 profiles of

Sophomore and Junior undergraduates with 43.5 % being females and the average age being 20

years and they wanted see if they could meet the DSM requirements for a “depression symptom

or a major depressive episode” or MDE (Moreno et al., 2011). They were looking for students

that showed depression symptoms such as “depressed mood, hopelessness, and sleep difficulties”

and found out that 25% of profiles displayed depressive symptoms and only 2.5% showed

criteria for a MDE (Moreno et al., 2011). They also found out that the more likely that students


used their Facebook, the more likely they were to “display a reference to depression” (Moreno et

al., 2011). Since Moreno et al, (2011) only evaluated Facebook statuses, it can be argued that this

number would increase tremendously had they also looked at uploaded pictures, videos, music,

etc. Had this research covered other types of social media like Twitter and/or Instagram, the

number of college students showing depressive symptoms would again, probably be much

higher.

Another set of researchers, De Choudhury, Gamon, Horvitz and Counts (2013) wanted to

find out if it would be possible to predict depression based on tweets that college students had

shared on Twitter. They looked at the tweets of people that were currently diagnosed as being

depressed, and then went back to the student’s Twitter a year ago from the date they were

diagnosed, to see if they would have come to the same conclusion (De Choudhury, Gamon,

Horvitz & Counts, 2013). For example if the individual was diagnosed as being depressed, on 23

of July 2015, then the researchers would go back a year, which would be 23 July 2014. There

were 243 males and 233 females with an average age of 25, and they found out that 36% of these

users “scored positive for depression” (De Choudhury, Gamon, Horvitz & Counts, 2013). Unlike

Moreno, De Choudhury et al, (2013) found that the more that the people were depressed, the less

they tweeted, but they did have a “greater negative emotion”. There is an inherent bias in this

study since the researchers knew who was depressed prior to the study, and as a result, they were

unable to get similar findings like Moreno et al, (2011) did. If the researchers had not known

who was diagnosed as being depressed, then they might have gotten similar results like Moreno

et al, (2011).

Since more than a billion individuals use the social networking site Facebook, Kross et al.

(2013) wanted to see how much daily Facebook usage impacted how a student felt in their


present moment and how content they are in their present state. They did this by text messaging

students five times per day, for a grand total of two weeks, and the students had to take a

questionnaire in where they were asked five questions about if they were worried, lonely, how

often they had used Facebook since the text message, and if they had talked to someone through

face to face or through the phone conversations since the text message, etc. (Kross et al., 2013).

The average age of the students in this group was 19.52 and they found that not only did the

students feel worse after being on Facebook, but they felt less content with their present lives

(Kross et al., 2013). Newer research by Utz and Khalid (2015) states that Facebook is being used

less and image focused Medias like the popular app, Snapchat, are being used more and more.

The research done by Utz and Khalid (2015) involved couples that were using Snapchat and

Facebook. They found out that the partners of the couples evoked more feelings of romantic

jealousy in Snapchat than in Facebook (Utz & Khalid, 2015). This was due because Snapchat is

geared as more of a personal app, whereas Facebook is viewable by a larger audience (Utz &

Khalid, 2015). Since using Facebook daily impacts student’s behaviors, and Snapchat elicits

feelings of romantic jealousy, it would be interesting to find out if FOMO, or Fear of Missing

Out is a cause of this jealousy. None of the researchers designed their studies on FOMO, but it

does touch on a lot of the same emotions associated with FOMO.

When people are at the workplace, they might be viewing their social media and find

themselves experiencing FOMO, and afterwards it is expected that they would end up feeling

pretty bad about themselves (Przybylski et al., 2013). The assumption is that this person would

not be motivated to work as hard as they did prior to experiencing FOMO, and in fact, it can be

argued, that their productivity would decline tremendously. Feelings of jealousy would ensue

since they would think that their friends and family are having so much fun on these social media


sites, while they have to do tedious assignments at work. It is also assumed that younger students

experience FOMO way more than older students because they are more connected to social

media on a personal and emotional level.

Addictive Nature of Social Media and what Students Think about Using Social Media

On a school report by BBC News, nine students who were in the year eleven (this equates

to 15-16 years of age) wanted to see if they could go a whole week without social media. One of

the students reported as feeling “more disconnected” and “isolated” while another one said that

there was a pressuring thought that told him that he should check Facebook; he compared that

pressuring thought to a drug and that it “had capability to do harm like a drug” (“FOMO: How

the Fear of Missing Out,” 2015). Out of the nine students that participated, only three made it

past the whole week. This is not surprising that social media is compared to drugs, since a lot of

other researchers have come to a similar conclusion. In fact Chaudhry (2015) argued that people

that were addicted to social media wanted to know what was happening within their social

networks and argued that social media is the best way to do this. The research also indicated that

the addiction to social media is not only tied with “loneliness and depression”, but the more that

individuals used social media, the more likely they were to have loss of face to face

conversations (Chaudhry, 2015). The researchers also suggested that the addiction to social

media can be caused by FOMO and that 75% of young adults reported that they had felt FOMO

whenever they used social media (Chaudhry, 2015). Recent research by Jones (2014) signifies

that most students know that they are addicted to their phones. Out of sixty-five survey

respondents from college students aged 18-22, Jones (2014) found out that 77.4% of students felt

“disconnected”, 25.8% felt “naked”, and 25.8% felt “stressed” whenever they did not have their

phones on them. There is a feeling of FOMO occurring since the students in the research said


that they want to always know whenever things are happening within their social media circle,

and cellphones allow them to figure that information out in seconds (Jones, 2014).

In conclusion, students know that there are “negative psychological effects” on the “self-

esteem” that students have, because of their obsession with technology (Jones, 2014). While on

the job, students may know that if they were to view Facebook, then the fear of missing out

might occur, yet they still do it. This research shows that students sometimes cannot help it, and

it is an addictive nature to social mdia.

Passive Facebook Usage

Verduyn et al. (2015) takes a similar approach like Kross et al. (2013) did in where the

researchers wanted to figure out if using Facebook passively instead of actively (i.e. just

scrolling through Facebook, instead of talking to someone through writing on their wall, through

Facebook messaging etc.) affected students’ health. The study had eighty-four undergraduate

students in where the average age was 19.93 (Verduyn et al., 2015). The students were placed in

a laboratory in where they answered similar questions to the questions that Kross asked (how are

you feeling, how lonely are you, etc) (Verduyn et al., 2015). Then the students were assigned to

engage in Facebook, either actively or passively and describe how they were feeling afterwards.

The researchers made sure that those who did not follow rules were taken out of analysis since

they had recorded what the students did, and then viewed it afterwards (Verduyn et al., 2015).

They concluded that those who were in the passive group had an effect on 95% of their

“affective well-being” (Verduyn et al., 2015). Researchers concluded that the passive users saw

their life as being worse off than others through their Facebook (Verduyn et al., 2015). What the


researchers were looking for originally, in where they described as showing signs of “envy” is

also known as FOMO (Verduyn et al., 2015).

Usually when students do view Facebook at work, they do so secretively, and since do

not have enough time to like or comment on a status, they would just view Facebook passively.

If the students are doing this, then they are not only probably experiencing FOMO, but it might

affecting their well-being. Like it was stated in the beginning of the paper, FOMO can cause

feelings of depression and anxiety to occur, which might cause students to have lower

productivity while on the job.

Fear of Missing Out

The topic of FOMO has been thoroughly discussed in this research proposal and

Przybylski et al. (2013) were the ones who first discovered the negative effects of FOMO. The

researchers had three studies and in the first one, they received a sample of international adults

who responded to a thirty-two Likert scale questionnaire about FOMO (Przybylski et al., 2013).

The researchers pinpointed ten statements that showed a large portion of FOMO, while the

second study obtained data from 1040 men and 1039 women ranging from ages 22 through 65

(Przybylski et al., 2013). They answered the ten question FOMO scale that was developed from

the first study, and measured social media engagement, psychological need satisfaction, overall

life satisfaction, and general mood (Przybylski et al., 2013). What they found was that younger

people, men to be specific, reported as having the higher levels of FOMO, while older people

were not as engrossed with social media, and had greater levels of need and life satisfaction

(Przybylski et al., 2013). Finally in the third study they had first year university students and

wanted to know how FOMO affects their lives; in the study there were twenty undergraduate


men and sixty-seven undergraduate women (Przybylski et al., 2013). Students were asked

questions about their engagements through Facebook, how they feel whenever they use

Facebook and the researchers wanted to know if FOMO was so strong that students were more

likely to engage in risky behaviors, like checking their social media, while maneuvering a car

(Przybylski et al., 2013). Those who had fear of missing out were more engaged in Facebook and

more distracted not only during lectures in their universities, but also paid more attention to

social media, emails, texting, etc. while driving (Przybylski et al., 2013).

With all of these studies it is easy to see that FOMO occurs mostly in younger students

and FOMO has proved to be negatively associated with satisfaction of their lives and their

overall mood (Verduyn et al., 2015). The more students were unsatisfied with their lives, the

more likely they were to have FOMO. In addition to the negative effects of using social media

frequently, FOMO has also been known to be quite addicting as explored by BCC News School

Report (2015), Chaudhry (2015) and Jones (2014). Not only this, but FOMO is also prevalent in

students that may be bored and or lonely (Verduyn et al., 2015). Verduyen et al. (2015) argued

that there needs to be more work that can investigate how FOMO is displayed in other settings.

One of these settings is FOMO in the workplace whenever current college students may

use their phones to view social media while at work. There has never been a research proposed

about how FOMO can impact the productivity of college student while at work. Even the ideas

of stopping FOMO while at work have been gathered from some of the research mentioned in

this literature review since nobody has created this research yet. It is pertinent to figure out why

some current college students use their phones to check out various social media sites, what they

think about using social media sites in the workplace, if they are experiencing FOMO, and if so,

how FOMO might impact their productivity in the workplace. Organizations, Managers and


Human Resource Officers can benefit from this research study since productivity is on the line;

everyone wants to maximize their profits with little effort. In addition, the health of the student

worker might potentially be at risk when a student is participating in social media in the

workplace. There have been plenty of studies that have shown that social media can make

younger students more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and general low life satisfaction.

Millennials are some of the brightest people in the workplace, so it is important to keep this

generation engaged and healthy while in the workplace.

Chapter 3

Research Methods

I will use a quantitative approach to run the study and I will use four instruments to gauge

how much FOMO each student experienced, the productivity of each student, the student’s

viewpoints about using social media in the workplace, and the way that the students perceive

themselves. There will be different scales depending on each measured experienced. All of the

measures are all Likert scales so it will be easier to determine quantitative information.

Sample and Procedure:

About 100 undergrad students will participate in the proposed study. The participants

must be between the ages of 18-30 because those are the target demographic that we are trying to

measure. In addition the participants must be working at least 20 hours a week to participate in

the study. Participants will be selected randomly from undergraduate psychology classes and the

entire study will be voluntary. In addition, we will also spread this study out to the Class of 2016

University of Houston Facebook Page, and the University of Tyler Class of 2016 Facebook Page,

to get a wider sample. In return, the participants who successfully complete the study will be


awarded extra credit in their psychology classes at the universities. This study will take

approximately one hour, with each instrument taking approximately twenty five minutes to

complete. Students will be selected randomly and once one hundred undergraduate students are

chosen, then they will be sent a link to a survey which will measure a range of scales, as well as

basic demographic information. There will be four rounds of survey since I am using four scales

to answer the subproblems and research question. I will follow up with the students after two

days by sending them an email to remind them beforehand that they have a study to complete.

The setting for the students should be at home, or somewhere where the students can concentrate

with little noise. The following are scales that will be used:

Instruments and Scales:

Fear of Missing Out Scale (FoMOs) - (Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C.

R., & Gladwell, V., 2013). This self-report scale was one of the first scales used to determine

FOMO and there were large samples from all over the world. The questions portray FOMO and

the researchers used 32 statements that represented the anxiety and fear that usually comes with

FOMO, and then were able to center in and focused on 10 items that portrayed the highest

amount of FOMO. These 10 questions are how I will measure the level of FOMOs that each

student experiences on a daily basis.

Work Effort Scale – (De Cooman, R., De Gieter, S., Pepermans, R., Jegers, M., & Van

Acker, F. 2009). Effort is really hard to prove and initially I was going to go with a goal theory

questionnaire, but after some research, I found out this scale. It was first created by reviewing all

different theories and research of work effort and then they created this scale (De Cooman et al.,

2009). They used the idea of test and retest to verify that it was reliable and then when they were


done, they labeled it the “Work Effort Scale” (De Cooman et al., 2009). This scale has 10

question on a 1-7 point measure, ranging from fully agree to fully disagree. I will use this scale

to measure the productivity of each student employee on the idea of “direction, persistence, and

intensity” of the work (De Cooman et al., 2009).

Attitudes Towards and Personal Use of Social Network Sites at the Workplace

Scale: - (Andreassen, C. S., Torsheim, T. and Pallesen, S., 2014). This 13 item scale will

determine what the students think about using social media in the workplace and how often they

use them. It was created by Andreassen et al, 2014 and was evaluated and analyzed before it was

given to the participants to verify that it could be used for the study. The instructions for this

study needed to be tweaked because they were not included in the original study, but the

questions will remain the same so that it will be reliable and valid.

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: - (Rosenberg, M., 1965). This scale has been around for

many years and it mostly used for adolescents (“Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale”, n.d.). It is been

labeled as being really reliable with the “internal consistency” being at 0.77 and it has a high

reliability for test and retest (“Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale”, n.d). I will use this scale to

determine the way that the students perceive themselves.

Data Analysis and Methods: I will analyze the ordinal data based on each subproblem to figure

out what the percentage of each given response is. I would also like to input this data on a

statistical and spreadsheet software so I can determine how each responses will differ based on

each demographic. It is anticipated that the students who will measure higher levels of FOMO in

the workplace, will have generally lower life satisfaction which will cause them to be


unproductive at work, than those who rate lower levels of FOMO. This is discussed more in the

anticipated results portion on page 23.

1. What are the negative emotional effects of experiencing FOMO through Social Media in

the workplace and what do students think about using social media in the workplace?

This subproblem takes into consideration the student’s responses and analyzes how

students may experience negative emotional effects of FOMO on a day to day basis. The data

needed from these responses will come from the students who complete the questions from the

“Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Scale.” The data will be secured by calculating all of the

responses of the students that answer the questions. The student will decide how true each

statement of the scale is on a 1-5 rating with 1 being “Not at all true of me” and 5 being

“Extremely true of me.” Finally, the data from this scale will be organized and analyzed by each

question so I can determine the percentage of each given response.

I will also try to determine what the student’s perception of themselves are. The data

needed from this will come from the students who complete the questions from the “Rosenberg

Self-Esteem Scale.” The data will be secured by calculating all of the responses of the students

that answer the questions. The student will determine how strongly they agree or disagree with

each statement and there will be four options: “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and

“Strongly Disagree.” Finally, the data from the scale will be organized and analyzed by each

question so I can determine the percentage of each given response.

The students will also respond to what they think about using Social Media in the

Workplace, and the data needed from this will come from the students who complete the

questions from the “Attitudes Towards and Personal Use of Social Network Sites at the


Workplace Scale.” The data will be secured by calculating all of the responses of the students

that answer the questions. The student will decide how true each statement is of their general

experiences on a 1-5 rating with 1 being “Strongly Agree” and 5 being “Strongly Disagree.”

Finally, the data from the scale will be organized and analyzed by each question so I can

determine the percentage of each given response.

2. How might productivity be affected by using Social Media in the workplace?

The second subproblem is to determine how productivity might be affected by using

social media in the workplace. The data needed from this response will come from the students

who complete the questions from the “Work Effort Scale.” The data will be secured by

calculating all of the responses of the students that answer the questions. The students will decide

how much the student agrees or disagrees with each statement on a 1-7 rating with 1 being “fully

agree” and 7 being “fully disagree.” Finally, the date from the scale will be organized and

analyzed by each questions so I can determine the percentage of each given response.

Study Period: The survey responses that will be provided to participants will be collected over a

two week period of time which equates to two surveys per week. Analyzing the data that was

collected will take approximately two weeks.

Ethical Considerations: All of the studies will be anonymous and I will not know who

answered what questions. There are no major risks to this study, other than students might get a

little tired of answering the questions, or they might be a little anxious or worried whenever they

answer the questions.

Chapter 4

Anticipated Findings


It is anticipated that FOMO might impact the productivity of current college students

who use social media in the workplace. When it comes to answering the subproblems I believe

that the students who use social media in the workplace and are experience FOMO are also more

likely to be anxious and or worried about their jobs, and they probably will have lower self-

esteem, and this will all impact their productivity in the workplace. When answering the second

part of the first subproblem, I believe that students will not really feel like it is okay to use Social

Media in the workplace, but I think that a lot of them do use it. Finally, to answer the last

subproblem, I believe that productivity might be affected by using Social Media in the workplace

because students are more likely to experience FOMO.

Chapter 5

Summary

The goal of this research proposal is to assess how FOMO might impact the productivity

of current college students who use Social Media in the workplace. This research proposal had

two research questions: what are the negative emotional effects of experiencing FOMO through

Social Media in the workplace and what do students think about using social media in the

workplace; also how might productivity be affected by using Social Media in the workplace?

Reviews from Verduyn et al. (2015) showed that FOMO causes feelings of lower life satisfaction

while Przybylski et al. (2013) showed that FOMO causes feelings of sadness and overall feelings

of depression when FOMO is combined with social media. Most of the current college students

are Millennials, and also Millennials waste the most company time, a whopping two hours each

day (Conner, 2013). Throughout the use of these studies, there is an indication that social media

use in the workplace may cause students to focus more on their social media, experience general


feelings of sadness and negative overall mood, which might lead to lower productivity in the

workplace.

The people that will benefit from this survey are college students, Managers, employees,

students, and organizations. I will be distributing four reputable scales that have been tested for

validity and reliability which will be answered by about one hundred current college students

who work a minimum of twenty hours a week. The research will be analyzed, graphed, and

measured to determine how FOMO might impact the productivity of current college students

who use Social Media in the workplace.

Conclusion

It is no surprise that when a company hires a student to work for them, they are to remain

focused on the task at hand. Generally though some of these students view social media while at

work and are exposing themselves to being the victims of FOMO. FOMO is the fear that other

people are having fun and being jolly, and you are not there to experience it with them, hence the

fear of missing out on something wonderful (Przybylski et al., 2013). Not only is viewing Social

Media while at work costing employers $650 billion dollars in losses (Federman, 2013), but

whenever people experience FOMO, they are left with feelings of lower life satisfaction and

negative overall mood (Verduyen et al., 2015). My goal is to see what happens whenever

students experience FOMO in the workplace – does this increase or decrease their productivity?

Since younger students are more susceptible to experience FOMO than are older students

(Verduyen et al., 2015), what might the negative emotional effects be of students who experience

FOMO through social media in the workplace? I would also like to know what students think of

using social media in the workplace. This study is important because it will benefit college


students, employees, and organizations. Organizations are going to have to figure out how to

defeat issues such as FOMO so that they can keep, retain, and develop their talented student

employees.

The opposing viewpoints in this research proposal is that whenever used sparingly, social

media is probably a good thing. There are lots of people that use social media sites at a time

whenever they are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do (Sponcil and

Gitimu, 2012). Also there are plenty of students who primarily use Social Media to keep up with

family and friends and just use it to connect with people (Utz, Muscanell, Khalid, 2015). I think

that students who experience FOMO are the ones who have office jobs, so this research will

apply to those students more, and might not apply to students that have retail jobs, or other non-

desk jobs. Nonetheless, there are plenty of researchers who have demonstrated the many

negative effects of FOMO, but none have researched how FOMO might impact the productivity

of current college students in the workplace.

Recommendations for Further Study

There are only one hundred participants who are in this study, and they will be mostly

from the south, which means that I will only figure out what the southern region of the US thinks

about the prosed research, and not the rest of the US. In the future, there should be a wider study

to cover students from all over the United States and maybe internationally as well. In addition

this study is only geared towards current college students who work a minimum of twenty hours

a week but in the future it can be geared towards any college students who have a job. This study

is not selective in what kind of work that the students are a part of, but in the future it might be

beneficial to see this study compared to students that work in an office and students that do not


work in an office. It would be interesting to see if the type of work that you do, could impact

how susceptible you are to FOMO, and if you are productive or unproductive at work.

Definitions of Terms

FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): A constant fear that others might be having fun and you

are not there to experience it with them and you feel as if you are missing out (Przybylski et al.,

2013).

Social Media: Being available at the tip of your fingers with easy access, being

collaborative, and most importantly being focused on technology (Lanham, 2010). For the

purpose of this study, social media is defined as the use of any of the following platforms:

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn.

Productivity: A combination of “what a person does (direction), how hard a person works

(intensity), and how long a person works (persistence)” (De Cooman et al., 2009).


References

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Communication, 19: 906–921. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12085

Chaudhry, L. A. (2015). Can You Please Put Your Phone Away? Examining how the FOMO

phenomenon and mobile phone addiction affect human relationships. Poster presented at

the annual Undergraduate Poster Symposium, organized by the Undergraduate Research

Opportunities Program (UROP) and part of VCU Research. Retrieved from

http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&context=uresposters

Conner, C. (2013). Who Wastes The Most Time at Work. Forbes.com. Retrieved from

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at-work/

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Assessment, 25(4), 266-273.

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Appendix

Fear Of Missing Out Scale: (Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V., 2013)

Participant Instructions:

Below is a collection of statements about your everyday experience. Using the scale provided please indicate how true each statement is of your general experiences. Please answer according to what really reflects your experiences rather than what you think your experiences should be. Please treat each item separately from every other item.

Response Anchors

Not at all true of me | 1

Slightly true of me | 2

Moderately true of me | 3

Very true of me | 4

Extremely true of me | 5

Items:

1. I fear others have more rewarding experiences than me.

2. I fear my friends have more rewarding experiences than me.

3. I get worried when I find out my friends are having fun without me.

4. I get anxious when I don't know what my friends are up to.

5. It is important that I understand my friends "in jokes."


6. Sometimes, I wonder if I spend too much time keeping up with what is going on.

7. It bothers me when I miss an opportunity to meet up with friends.

8. When I have a good time it is important for me to share the details online (e.g. updating

status).

9. When I miss out on a planned get-together it bothers me.

10. When I go on vacation, I continue to keep tabs on what my friends are doing.

Work Effort Scale: De Cooman et al. (2009)

Below you will find a set of statements concerning the execution of your job. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with each statement based on the following 1-7 rating: 1 means “fully agree” while 7 means “fully disagree”

1. I do not give up quickly when something does not work well.

2. I really do my best to get my work done, regardless of potential difficulties

3. When I start an assignment I pursue it to the end.

4. I do my best to do what is expected of me.

5. I am trustworthy in the execution of the tasks that are assigned to me.

6. I really do my best to achieve the objectives of the organization.

7. I think of myself as a hard worker.

8. I really do my best in my job.

9. I put a lot of energy into the tasks that I commence.

10. I always exert equally hard during the execution of my job.


Attitudes Towards and Personal Use of Social Network Sites at the Workplace Scale: (Andreassen, C. S., Torsheim, T. and Pallesen, S., 2014). (Note SNS means Social Networking Sites)

Below is a collection of statements about your everyday personal experience regarding the use of Facebook/Twitter or other Social Network Sites (SNS) and should not be based on your job-related experiences. Please use the scale provided to indicate how true each statement is of your general experiences:

1 = Strongly Disagree 2 = Disagree 3 = Neither agree nor disagree 4 = Agree 5 = Strongly Agree.

1. It is ok to spend time at work maintaining friendships in SNSs such as Facebook/Twitter

2. Spending time at work on Facebook/Twitter increases job satisfaction

3. Job performance is lowered if one uses Facebook/Twitter during working hours

4. It does not disturb work if one sometimes visits Facebook/Twitter during working hours

5. Visiting Facebook/Twitter during working hours can inspire one to work better

6. Job and SNSs such as Facebook and Twitter do not go together

7. I visit Facebook/Twitter almost daily during working hours

8. If nobody could discover it, I would spend more time on Facebook/Twitter during working hours

9. If I have the opportunity, I like to visit Facebook/Twitter during working hours

10. I am often so curious about what's happened on Facebook/Twitter or other SNSs that I can't resist visiting these sites during working hours


11. I monitor what's happening with my friends via Facebook/Twitter or other SNSs during working hours

12. I often read or post on Facebook/Twitter or other SNSs during working hours

13. I often chat on Facebook/Twitter or other SNSs during working hours

Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: (Rosenberg, M., 1965).

Instructions

Below is a list of statements dealing with your general feelings about yourself. Please indicate how strongly you agree or disagree with each statement.

1. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.

Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

2. At times I think I am no good at all.


3. I feel that I have a number of good qualities.


4. I am able to do things as well as most other people.


5. I feel I do not have much to be proud of.


6. I certainly feel useless at times.


7. I feel that I'm a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others.


8. I wish I could have more respect for myself.



9. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure.


10. I take a positive attitude toward myself.


Documents

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) and how it affects College Students at Work