#ProblematicInstaUser: Motivations and the mediating role of fear of missing out among young adults

With the prevalent social media use in our daily lives, problematic Instagram usage behavior has become a social issue in recent years. To understand such problematic behavior, this study focused on four different motives for Instagram use – surveillance, documentation, coolness, and creativity – in the context of the Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution model (I-PACE) and examined their influences on problematic Instagram use (PIU). This study further explored the mediating role of fear of missing out (FOMO) in the relationships of four motives with problematic Instagram use. The results of the study (N = 304 young adults, 60.2% females) showed that people who use Instagram for surveillance, documentation, coolness, and creativity had higher levels of PIU. Moreover, FOMO was found to mediate the relationships between motivations and PIU. The findings of this study contribute to extending the I-PACE model by focusing on Instagram use motivations and thus improving an understanding of how people show PIU. In addition, our study highlights the importance of FOMO to understand the mechanism of PIU.