Online vigilance, the fear of missing out, and mental health: A cross-sectional study
Type of research: Quantitative empirical
Description:
Over the last years, social media use has significantly increased, especially among adolescents and young adults. While social media enables instant communication, many people feel a need to stay constantly connected. This phenomenon is referred to as being permanently online and permanently connected, and includes both behavioral aspects (e.g., screen time) and a psychological sense of connectedness (Vorderer et al., 2016). The psychological dimension is captured by “online vigilance”, a state of continuous alertness toward one’s online environment characterized by frequent thoughts about online content, readiness to respond, and ongoing monitoring (Reinecke et al., 2018).
Higher online vigilance has been associated with negative mental health outcomes, such as increased stress and lower overall well-being. However, most prior research on social media use and mental health has focused on behavioral aspects, leading to a relatively limited understanding of the psychological aspects.
A related concept is the fear of missing out (FoMO), which describes concerns about missing rewarding social experiences others may be having (Gupta & Sharma, 2021). FoMO has been widely associated with higher social media use and poorer mental health outcomes, but its relationship with online vigilance remains largely underexplored.
In this project, you will examine the relationships between online vigilance, FoMO, and mental health-related variables of your interest (e.g., stress, depressive symptoms, anxiety, loneliness). The study will have a cross-sectional design. You will collaboratively set up the online questionnaire in Qualtrics, write the ethical request, and recruit participants together with three other students.
Example research questions could be:
1. How are the sub-dimensions of online vigilance related to overall mental health and fear of missing out?
2. To what extent are online vigilance and fear of missing out related, and does general anxiety moderate this relationship?
References
Gupta, M., & Sharma, A. (2021). Fear of missing out: A brief overview of origin, theoretical underpinnings and relationship with mental health. World Journal of Clinical Cases, 9(19), 4881–4889. https://doi.org/10.12998/wjcc.v9.i19.4881
Reinecke, L., Klimmt, C., Meier, A., Reich, S., Hefner, D., Knop-Huelss, K., et al. (2018). Permanently online and permanently connected: Development and validation of the Online Vigilance Scale. PLoS ONE, 13(10), e0205384. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0205384
Vorderer, P., Klimmt, C., & Ritterfeld, U. (2016). Permanently online, permanently connected: Explorations into the psychology of POPC. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 580–587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.085