Social media use and everyday cognitive failure: investigating the fear of missing out and social networks use disorder relationship

BACKGROUND: Nearly five billion individuals worldwide are using social media platforms. While the benefits of using social media, such as fostering social connections, are clear, ongoing discussions are focused on whether excessive use of these platforms might have adverse effects on cognitive functioning. Excessive social media use shares similarities with addictive behaviors and is believed to result from a complex interplay of individual characteristics, emotions, thoughts, and actions. Among these contributing factors, one of particular interest is the Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), a state where an individual apprehends that others are experiencing rewarding moments in their absence (but see more information on the FoMO trait/state debate in this article). METHODS: In this study, we aimed to explore the intricate relationships between FoMO, tendencies towards Social Networks Use Disorder (SNUD), and everyday cognitive failures. To achieve this, we gathered a large sample of N = 5314 participants and administered a comprehensive set of questionnaires. These included a Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) scale, which assessed both trait and state aspects of FoMO, the Social Networking Sites-Addiction Test (SNS-AT), designed to gauge tendencies towards SNUD, and the Cognitive Failure Questionnaire (CFQ), which measured everyday cognitive lapses. RESULTS: Our findings revealed that among non-users of social media, both FoMO and everyday cognitive failures were at their lowest levels. Further, in the group of social media users, we observed a significant relationship between FoMO and cognitive failures, which was mediated by SNUD tendencies. This mediation was particularly pronounced for the state component of FoMO, which encompasses maladaptive thoughts related to online behavior. CONCLUSIONS: While our study is cross-sectional and thus cannot establish causality, one plausible interpretation of our findings is that higher FoMO tendencies may trigger excessive social media use, which in turn could lead to cognitive failures, possibly due to distraction and reduced attention to everyday tasks. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-023-05371-x.