Research Article
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Published Online: 12 October 2023

Fear of Missing Out, Reflective Smartphone Disengagement, and Loneliness in Late Adolescents

Publication: Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Volume 26, Issue Number 10

Abstract

Reflective smartphone disengagement (i.e., deliberate actions to self-regulate when and how one should use one's smartphone) has become a necessary skill in our ever-connected lives, contributing to a healthy balance of related benefits and harms. However, disengaging from one's smartphone might compete with impulsive psychosocial motivators such as fear of missing out (FoMO) on others' rewarding experiences or feelings of loneliness. To shed light into these competitive processes, the present paper disentangles the reciprocal, over-time relationships between reflective smartphone disengagement, FoMO, and loneliness using data from a two-wave panel study among emerging adults (16–21 years of age). Measurement-invariant structural equation modeling suggests that FoMO and reflective smartphone disengagement negatively predict each other over time, indicating a possible spiraling process. In addition, reflective smartphone disengagement was also negatively related to feelings of loneliness. Together, these findings underline (a) how young people's impulsive and reflective system compete with each other over control of their smartphone usage, where (b) psychosocial benefits of reflective smartphone disengagement were validated among emerging adults, potentially helping them to strengthen the benefits and limit the harms of permanent interactions with and through technology.

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Information & Authors

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Published In

cover image Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking
Volume 26Issue Number 10October 2023
Pages: 731 - 738
PubMed: 37582211

History

Published online: 12 October 2023
Published in print: October 2023
Published ahead of print: 14 August 2023

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Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
School for Mass Communication Research, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.

Notes

The research data used in this study is freely available in a public data repository of the Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/zcw4r/).
Address correspondence to: Prof. Jörg Matthes, Department of Communication, University of Vienna, Wa¨hringer Strasse 29, Vienna 1090, Austria [email protected]

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

Funding Information

This research was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) as part of the project “Social Media Use and Adolescents' Well-Being” (P 33413-G).

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