Social networking and fear of missing out (FOMO) among medical students at University of Khartoum, Sudan 2021

• Published in: BMC Psychology Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 1 - 422
• Main Authors: Mohammed, Abdalla Abbas Abdalla, Osman, Mohammedahmed M, Ali, Mohammednour Mukhtar Mohammednour, Adam, Mohammed O, Mustafa, Mohamed Esameldeen Elsayed, Babikir, Anab M, Abdulsamad, Ahmed M. I, Abo, Mohamed Elhadi Abdelrahim, Yasein, Yasein Abdelmoneim Mohamed, Abdelgader, Mohamed Sati Shampool, Hasabo, Elfatih A, Ibrahim, Mohammed Elsir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 01.12.2023; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Cellular telephones; Fear of missing out; Internet; Internet access; Likert scale; Medical students; Online social networks; Population; Portable computers; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Smartphones; Social aspects; Social networking intensity; Social networking sites; Social networks; Sociodemographics; Variance analysis; Sudan; Khartoum Sudan
• ISSN: 2050-7283; 2050-7283
• DOI: 10.1186/s40359-023-01403-z

With students becoming more involved in the internet and social networking sites, they become more prone to their consequences. This study focuses on measuring the social networking intensity and the fear of missing out among the medical students of University of Khartoum, then examining the association between them. Facility-based, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted at Faculty of Medicine, Khartoum University between January and March 2021. A total of 333 students were selected by simple random sampling. Data was collected from the participants using a structured self-administered questionnaire that involved the social networking intensity (SNI) scale and fear of missing out (FOMO) scale. The data was analyzed by the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 26. Moderate positive correlation between social networking intensity and fear of missing out was found (p-value < 0.01). Of the total participants; 51 participants (15.4%) experienced low SNI and low FOMO. Another 78 participants (23.6%) had moderate SNI and moderate FOMO and only 16 Participants (4.8%) showed high SNI and high FOMO. There were no significant differences in SNI or FOMO scores among the different socio-demographic variables, except for the SNI score which was positively correlated to the monthly income. An association between SNI and FOMO was found. SNI was not affected by socio-demographic factors except for the monthly income.