Extrinsic academic motivation and social media fatigue: Fear of missing out and problematic social media use as mediators

Studies have rarely investigated the association between extrinsic motivation and social media fatigue. This study aims to examine the mediating role of Fear of missing out (FOMO) and problematic social media use in the association between extrinsic academic motivation and social media fatigue. A total of 399 college students (43% males) completed measures of extrinsic academic motivation, FOMO, problematic social media use, and social media fatigue. The results showed that FOMO mediated the relationship between extrinsic academic motivation and problematic social media use; problematic social media use mediated the association between FOMO and social media fatigue; extrinsic academic motivation fostered social media fatigue either through FOMO or problematic social media use, or through these two factors together; and the indirect mediation effects between extrinsic academic motivation and social media fatigue through problematic social media use were larger than the single mediation effect of FOMO and their serial mediation effects. In addition, the indirect effects of the three subconstructs of extrinsic academic motivation (external regulation, introjected regulation, and identified regulation) on social media fatigue follow a trend of gradual decline. The findings and implications of this study are presented and discussed.