M. Akbari

Who they are

Akbari works in psychology research on fear of missing out and internet use. This site draws on one paper, the 2021 meta-analysis, and gives the name as the paper's records show it.

This page records only what the paper and its published record state. Biography beyond the cited work is not given here.

Key papers

Fear of missing out (FoMO) and internet use: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis (2021). Following standard reporting guidelines for systematic reviews, the authors pooled 86 effect sizes representing 55,134 participants, with an average age of about 22 and a majority of women. The association between trait fear of missing out and internet use was positive throughout but varied a great deal in strength, from weak to strong across studies. In some populations the fear seemed to increase with age and in others to decrease. The link did not appear to depend on depressive, anxiety or stress symptoms or on life satisfaction. The COVID-19 pandemic was the only significant moderator, strengthening the association, and the authors found no evidence of interaction or of a two-way relationship between the two.

Key ideas

The meta-analysis shows that fear of missing out is a real individual difference with a consistent link to time spent online, and also how loosely that link is pinned down. The authors conclude that it is still unclear what makes individuals show distinct patterns in the association. For questions about shopping, the review is a reminder of scope: its evidence concerns internet use, not spending, and the studies it pools mostly measure both the fear and the behaviour by asking people about themselves.

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