Social Media Induced FOMO Effect on Depression: A serial mediation analysis towards problematic social networking usage and phubbing behaviour

Background: Depression is a major mental health disorder with severe personal and societal effects. It is characterised by a variety of feelings that are present at the same time (Pessimism, frustration, sadness, etc.). Many issues or worries in the modern world have been heightened by fears such as running out of mobile phones, out of internet packages, or Fear of missing out (FOMO). Despite this, little research on the relationship between these social media-induced FOMO has been undertaken on Depression. Objective: The present study intended to investigate the relationship between FOMO and depression through the serial mediation effect of problematic social networking usage and phubbing behaviour. Methodology: SPSS 23 with Process Macro and AMOS 21.0 were used to evaluate the survey data of 379 respondents from universities in North India. Results: FOMO has a significant detrimental effect on depression among its users. Also, this relationship was significantly mediated by both problematic social media usage and phubbing behaviour which supports the serial mediation model. Hence, the results exhibit that FOMO predicts problematic social media usage and phubbing behaviour, which in turn causes depression among users. Conclusions: Since most students use social media activity in the digital era, there is a significant risk that these students may be exposed to the negative impacts of problematic social networking usage, phubbing behaviour and depression. Therefore, students, parents, educators, and policymakers need to promote responsible social media use and teach students about detrimental behaviours including FOMO, problematic social media usage, and phubbing.