Psychosocial well-being and social media engagement: The mediating roles of social comparison orientation and fear of missing out

Abstract

Based on a large representative sample of German Internet users aged 14–39 years, the current survey study investigates how three indicators of decreases in well-being (loneliness, anxiety, and depression) are connected to social media engagement (SME). To provide a deeper understanding of this relationship, not only direct links are inspected, but fear of missing out (FoMO) and social comparison orientation (SCO) are considered as possible mediators. The results show that loneliness, depression, and anxiety are positively related to increases in SME. FoMO and SCO jointly mediate the connection between well-being and SME, that is, decreases in well-being are connected with increases in FoMO and SCO, which in turn positively predict SME. Furthermore, SCO and FoMO are found to be positively related to each other, suggesting that those with a high SCO might form a particular at-risk group for the development of FoMO.