A study of the effects of social media addiction and fear of missing out on consumption behaviors

Social media, which is the most used communication tool today, has become integrated with our social life over time and can even affect our consumption behaviors. The addiction of consumers to social media can turn into social media fears over time. It is thought that one of these fears is the fear of missing out on developments. Consumers' fear of missing out on developments, expressed as doing what others do and consuming what they consume, or FoMO can also affects the consumption behavior of consumers over time. In this study, the effect of social media engagement and fear of missing out on social media developments on conspicuous and instinctive consumption is evaluated. It is also aimed to evaluate the direct effect of social media addiction on the fear of missing out. In the study, 393 participants were reached with the convenience sample type. Demographic and descriptive analyzes as well as explanatory factor and regression analyzes were performed in the study. According to the results, social media addiction has a significant effect on fomo and fomo has a significant effect on consumption. However, the fear of missing out on the virtual tolerance dimension of social media addiction does not have a significant effect on the anxiety dimension and conspicuous consumption. It is expected that the results obtained will contribute to the literature and marketing experts.