Fear of missing out and compulsive social media use as mediators between OCD symptoms and social media fatigue.

Alongside positive outcomes associated with social network sites, individuals can experience negative consequences from excessive use. The present research explores the tendency for individuals with nonclinical obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCD) to experience greater social media fatigue via fear of missing out and compulsive social media use. In Study 1, 339 participants (Mage = 22.29, SD = 5.64) completed the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory–Revised, the Bergen Social Networking Addiction Scale, and a social media fatigue measure. In Study 2, 260 participants (Mage = 24.24, SD = 6.79) completed the prior measures in addition to the fear of missing out scale. Individuals with higher levels of OCD symptoms experienced greater fear of missing out, which predicted compulsive social media use, which predicted social media fatigue. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.