Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Toward ICT Use During Public Health Emergencies: An Investigation on Predictors and Outcomes

COVID-19 has brought a great impact on people's lives around the world. This paper aims to study the influencing factors of people's fear of missing out (FOMO) toward personal ICT use and its further impact on life satisfaction during the pandemic. A sample consisting of 318 participants was obtained by an online survey in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used for data analysis. The results suggested that people's anxiety and boredom brought by the pandemic are positively correlated with their FOMO. People with higher FOMO used personal ICTs more frequently for both social and process purposes. Furthermore, the social use of ICTs promoted people's life satisfaction, while the process use of ICTs had no significant effect on life satisfaction. Several theoretical and practical implications were discussed based on the results.