Minimizing Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) in Social Media
Master’s Thesis, MFA in Design Research and Development
Project Overview:
This design research project explores college students' experience with Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on social media. Using design research methods, it gathered insights into user experiences and developed user-centered solutions to mitigate FOMO. The goal was to identify UX principles that translate into actionable design strategies, fostering healthier digital interactions and creating more mindful, less anxiety-driven social media experiences.
Final Deliverables:
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Identified emotional and behavioral patterns related to FOMO in college students through UX research
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Developed 10 user experience design principles to help reduce FOMO on social media
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Created a quadrant-based framework categorizing the principles by FOMO type and user vs. platform control
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Designed a third-party plugin to support mindful, personalized engagement with social media
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Built an informational website to share the research process, design principles, and actionable strategies
Timeline:
Three academic semesters:
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Spring 2024: Refining the Problem Statement
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Fall 2024: User Research
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Spring 2025: Concept Development
My Role:
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Solo thesis project for an MFA in Design Research & Development at The Ohio State University.
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Advisor: Dr. Liz Sanders
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Committee: Shadrick Addy, Dr. Joseph Bayer
Research Question
How can user experience design be applied to mitigate the negative effects of Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on social media among college students?
Goals
01
Conduct in-depth design research, such as interviews, focus groups, and co-design, to understand how college students experience FOMO across social media platforms to uncover key patterns and insights.
02
Synthesize research findings to reveal underlying causes of FOMO, connect insights across methods, and identify actionable opportunities to guide solution development for reducing FOMO in social media experiences.
03
Develop user-centered design principles to minimize FOMO in social media experiences for college students.
Phase 1:
Understanding the Problem
Introduction: Defining the Topic and Problem
You were just catching up on what’s new, but suddenly it feels like everyone else is living life better, faster, fuller than you!
FOMO: The Hidden Feeling Behind the Scroll
We open social media to feel connected, to catch up, or just to take a short break. But as we scroll, it quickly becomes more than just updates. It becomes a stream of moments where others seem to be living more fully, experiencing more, and enjoying life in ways that feel just out of reach. This feeling is called FOMO: Fear of Missing Out.
Social media platforms are designed to keep us engaged with constant notifications, carefully curated highlights, and endless content. These same design choices often amplify FOMO, making users feel like they are falling behind or not doing enough. Over time, this can quietly affect our emotional well-being, increase anxiety, and leave us feeling less satisfied with our own experiences.
Why This Matters Today
A Modern Emotion, Amplified by Design
FOMO is now one of the most common mixes of emotions in our digital lives, especially for students and young adults.
It Starts With a Scroll
Social media was meant to connect us. But now, it often reminds us of everything we’re not doing, missing, or left out of.
Not Just a Personal Problem
These feelings aren’t random. They’re shaped by the design of the platforms we use every day, such as notifications, feeds, likes, and highlights, and also depend on how different users experience and engage with social media in their own ways.
This Is a Design Challenge
User experience (UX) design is the practice of shaping how people interact with systems, products, and services. By thoughtfully designing these interactions, UX can support healthier and more mindful experiences, especially on social media.
Why It Matters
By understanding how users emotionally respond to social media, we can create better experiences that reduce anxiety and support emotional well-being.
Target Audience: College Students
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About 70% of college students use social media every day, and more than 75% spend over an hour on it daily (Baldwin-White & Gower, 2023).
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For college students, social media is a daily tool for communication, information sharing, entertainment, and self-expression.
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During college years, a pivotal time for identity development, social media plays a key role in shaping students’ self-image and sense of belonging.
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Students face high exposure to peer comparison and FOMO triggers.
Research Methodology
Research Through Design (RTD)
This investigation adopts the Research Through Design (RTD) approach, a process that integrates research within design practice to explicitly generate knowledge. RTD allows for ongoing iteration and exploration, and is a method continually undergoing reinvention (Prochner & Godin, 2022).
This project focuses on what’s often referred to as the “fuzzy front end” of the design process. This is the early, ambiguous phase where designers explore open-ended questions, identify opportunities, and sometimes uncover what shouldn’t be designed (Sanders & Stappers, 2008). These early explorations are less about solving a defined problem and more about uncovering what the real problem might be.
Why Qualitative Methods
Understanding how users experience FOMO requires more than just metrics. I chose qualitative methods to uncover the reasons behind user behavior, including how people interpret, react to, and emotionally navigate social media in their daily lives. This approach supports user-centered design by capturing real stories, lived experiences, and nuanced pain points. It allowed me to identify not just what users do, but what they feel, need, and struggle with, which is essential for informing thoughtful, experience-driven design decisions.
Design Process:
I used a combination of research methods including:
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Literature review to build a foundational understanding of FOMO and identify gaps in existing research
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Pilot studies to test early directions and refine my research approach
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User interviews to gather initial insights and identify participants for co-design/participatory focus groups
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Co-design sessions to explore shared experiences, empower users, and generate ideas collaboratively
Phase 2:
Research and Exploration
Literature Review
Starting with What’s Already Known
Most research on FOMO and social media comes from psychology, sociology, and communication, with a focus on defining the phenomenon. Few studies explore design or actionable solutions, a missing piece this project begins to address. Click 'Read More' for a deeper dive into the phenomenon.
Looking beyond design to understand user experiences
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Many of today’s challenges, including Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), are inherently interdisciplinary, requiring insights from fields like psychology, sociology, and communication studies to be fully understood.
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Exploring how different fields have investigated this phenomenon helped build a well-rounded perspective on the problem.
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A holistic understanding is essential for informing the next steps in the design research process.
Theoretical Foundations of FOMO
“Defined as a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent, FOMO is characterized by the desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing.”
(Przybylski et al., 2013)
"These findings suggest that social comparison and FOMO play a role in the link between passive SNS [social networking site] use, depressive symptoms, and self-perceptions, and that FOMO could result from online social comparison."
(Burnell et al., 2019)
"There were three phases of experiencing FOMO. The 1st phase is Recognition of Lagging in which a person knows he is lagging behind someone about something by seeing the pop-up notifications on social media or smartphone. The 2nd phase is Experiencing Feelings. After knowing he is lagging behind, a person with FOMO will start feeling various things such as fear of missing information, anxiety, and worry. The last phase is Doing the Action. Having multiple feelings at once encourages someone to do many things, either taking actions or doing nothing."
(Nursodiq et al., 2020)
Key Insights from the Literature Studies
*To keep this section concise and focused, only a few key insights are highlighted here
The Amplifying Effect of Social Media on FOMO
FOMO can happen anywhere, but social media amplifies it by giving us constant, immediate glimpses into others' lives.
FOMO’s Positive and Negative Impacts
FOMO is often associated with negative feelings, but it can also have positive effects by inspiring individuals to explore new opportunities and experiences.
Upward Social Comparison and FOMO
A key component associated with FOMO is upward social comparison, where individuals measure their lives against others' seemingly more fulfilling experiences.
Classifying Types of FOMO
Literature shows that FOMO is not a single, universal experience. Researchers have proposed various classifications that highlight its emotional and behavioral complexity. Understanding these distinctions is important for designing more focused and meaningful solutions.
The Phases of Experiencing FOMO
Studies have outlined different steps in experiencing FOMO, commonly categorized into three phases: triggers that cause FOMO, emotions experienced during FOMO, and actions taken in response.
Dark Patterns and Addictive Behaviors
Social media encourages addictive use through social proof, variable rewards, and dark patterns. These design tactics manipulate user behavior and reduce mindful engagement with the real world.
Designing for Engagement: Social Media and FOMO
Social media platforms are intentionally designed with algorithms and features (e.g., likes, stories) that encourage engagement and foster FOMO.
Pilot Studies
Before determining the next steps in the design research process, it was crucial to identify which research methods would best align with the project goals and support meaningful data collection. Pilot tests were conducted to explore different approaches for gathering user insights, focusing on methods that encouraged participants to share their experiences openly and authentically. These pilots helped evaluate which methods generated the most valuable data for both understanding user perspectives and shaping the actual data gathering phase.
User Interviews
Spotlight on Users: Identifying Well-matched Participants
After conducting pilot tests to refine my research direction, I began one-on-one interviews with 23 college students to gather in-depth insights and recruit participants for upcoming co-design/participatory focus groups.
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Focused on understanding how students experience FOMO in their daily social media use.
Chose interviews over surveys to encourage deeper, more personal conversations, allow for follow-up questions, and foster stronger participant engagement.
Conducted sessions across campus to ensure a diverse range of perspectives.
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Provided free donuts as a casual incentive to create a relaxed, approachable setting.
Empowering Users: Co-Design
Co-design involves collaboration between professional designers and non-designers, enabling participants to play a significant role in generating new design concepts
(Sanders & Stappers, 2008)
Co-Design: Where Users Become Creators
The co-design approach shifts the traditional method of designing for users to designing with people, facilitating structured activities that allow people to articulate their thoughts, experiences, and needs.
This collaborative process not only empowers the co-designers but also grounds the study’s design interventions in authentic perspectives, providing a robust foundation for subsequent stages of the design process.
A Spectrum of Perspectives: Participant Recruitment and Selection
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I conducted interviews and distributed posters to recruit participants, who then completed a questionnaire about their FOMO experiences.
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A total of 118 students completed the questionnaire and applied to participate in the focus groups.
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Participants were selected through in-person interviews or online questionnaire responses, based on two main criteria: regular social media use and frequent experiences of FOMO. This approach ensured a diverse and relevant mix of insights for the upcoming co-design/participatory focus groups.
Co-Design/Participatory Focus Groups
After selecting the right participants, college students who regularly experience FOMO on social media, two carefully designed 2-hour co-design/participatory focus groups were conducted.
These focus groups aimed to encourage participants to share their thoughts and opinions on the issue and collaboratively generate ideas to mitigate it.
Participants:
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Total of 21 participants across 2 focus groups.
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Each focus group included around 10 participants, divided into two groups for collaboration.
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Duration: 2 hours
Focus Group Outcomes
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Facilitated meaningful discussions among social media users who experience FOMO, providing a platform for shared understanding and connection.
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Participants shared personal experiences, pain points, and unmet needs related to FOMO through thoughtfully guided activities, which also enabled them to collectively generate actionable ideas for mitigating FOMO and improving social media experiences.
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Collected valuable user-centered data and insights from discussions and ideas, serving as inspiration and guidance for the next phase of the research.
Summary of Focus Groups Activities
(Designed and Facilitated by Researcher)
01
Learning about FOMO
- A short presentation explored the different forms of FOMO that appear in social media, building on participants’ existing understanding of the concept.
- Each participant received a booklet with short questions to prompt reflection on past social media experiences with FOMO, and shared some of their reflections with the group.
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FOMO Spectrum
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Participants evaluated social media content examples, placing them on a spectrum from Positive to Negative FOMO. They added their own examples and discussed perspectives to explore how FOMO is experienced.
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Why this activity? It served as a warm-up to help participants feel comfortable and start collaborating in their new groups.
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Reverse Problem Solving
Step 1: Make FOMO Worse!
Brainstorm ways to intensify FOMO on social media, focusing on quantity over quality.
Why this activity?
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Provides an easier starting point to help participants begin generating ideas.
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Encourages creativity and free thinking to uncover overlooked factors.
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Provides a foundation for generating innovative solutions in later steps.
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Reverse Problem Solving
Step 2: Flip the Script!
- Participants were tasked with developing new ideas to reduce FOMO on social media for college students, guided by prompts and provocations cards to support and enhance their ideation process
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Idea Clustering
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Each group was asked to identify common traits in their ideas, cluster them into groups, and generate additional ideas for each cluster.
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Groups briefly presented their work with the other group.
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Idea Voting
Each participant voted for the best ideas within their group using three dots per person.
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Final Idea Development
The most-voted idea was selected, placed on a template for naming, and further developed by answering a set of questions:
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What specific FOMO-related problem does this idea address?
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Write down a few details you would like to add to the idea.
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What unintended problems or negative effects could arise from this idea?
Groups briefly presented their work with the other group.
Phase 3:
Analysis and Insights
Data analysis
The analysis included both one-on-one interviews and co-design/participatory focus groups activities. The following methods were used to systematically examine the data and identify key insights that guided the next steps in the design research process.
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Transcript Review
I reviewed interview transcripts, in-group workshop conversations, and participant presentations to identify key quotes, emotional responses, and recurring experiences. Many valuable insights came from group discussions that were not shared during presentations but emerged in the smaller, more candid conversations.
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Affinity Mapping
Used Miro to group quotes, observations, and responses by theme, helping to uncover common patterns across interviews and focus groups activities.
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Coding Synthesis
Used coding to identify key stages of experiencing FOMO on social media, as well as different types of ideas based on users’ input. Categorized the focus group-generated ideas into clear groups for easier comparison and synthesis, supported by Miro’s color-coded tags for visual clarity.
Key Insights
Emotional Landscape of FOMO
FOMO Is Often Rationalized but Still Felt
Even when participants knew their feelings were irrational, they still experienced FOMO.
This shows a cognitive-emotional disconnect: Most users know in their minds that they’re not really missing anything important, but they still feel left out.
"I feel left out, but I know my feelings aren’t entirely rational." — Interview Participant
FOMO Sometimes Motivates Positive Action
Some participants used FOMO to motivate themselves to reconnect with friends, try something new, or pursue personal goals.
"In some ways, I think I would like a positive instance of them, or like when I see my friends hanging out without me or like whatever, it reminds me that I should reach out to the people that I care about and like invite them to hang out or something like that inspires action." — Focus Group Participant
The Double-Edged Emotion of FOMO
Many participants described feeling genuinely happy for others while simultaneously sensing that they were falling behind in life by not having the same experiences. It wasn’t jealousy, but rather a quiet comparison that made them question their own pace or path, even while celebrating someone else's moment.
"I’m happy for them, but I wish I was there." — Interview Participant
Comparison Quietly Drains Joy
FOMO is often fueled by social comparison. The more participants compared themselves to others, the more their sense of satisfaction diminished.
"Comparison is the thief of joy" — Interview Participant
There’s Always Something Being Missed
Students often felt they were trading one important thing for another. Prioritizing academics meant missing out on social events, and the reverse was also true. This constant balancing act created a low-level tension and a quiet awareness that something was always being left behind.
"When I see others posting content about their seemingly interesting experiences when I just stayed at home and have a less fruitful life, it made me feel I'm boring and life is not worth living." — Focus Group Participant
Self-awareness Helps Reduce the Impact
Some participants were able to recognize their feelings of FOMO and shift their perspective. Reminding themselves that they were doing something worthwhile helped them move on more easily. Reframing the situation didn’t always erase the emotion, but it softened its impact.
"I wasn’t there because I was doing something important, but it still stings." — Interview Participant
Triggers and Patterns on Social Media
Not all platforms create FOMO in the same way. Some amplify it with real-time updates and social tagging, while others feel more distant or intentional. Here’s what stood out across my user research:
How Different Platforms Trigger Unique Types of FOMO
Why Some Platforms Trigger Less FOMO
Phase 4:
Design and Reflection
Ten UX Principles from This Study to Minimize FOMO
User Experience Principles to Minimize FOMO
This part of the project brings everything together. Using data gathered throughout the entire research process, I developed ten UX design principles aimed at minimizing FOMO in the social media experience of college students.
These principles are grounded in real user experiences, emotional insights, and behavioral patterns. Rather than being abstract theories, they serve as practical, user-centered guidelines for designing healthier and more mindful social media platforms. I organized these principles into a website for easy access by anyone interested in this topic, whether they are designers or everyday social media users.
Ten Design Principles Organized in Four Categories
One: Encouraging Authenticity & Everyday Expression
Two: Empowering User Agency & Customization
Three: Designing for Mindful, Non-Compulsive Use
Four: Enabling Informed, Inclusive, and Socially Connected Experiences
What Each Principle Includes
Each principle is broken down in detail on the dedicated UX Design Principles page. For every principle, I included:
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A clear explanation of the principle
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Insights from psychology that support it
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Principle Placement in the Quadrant Visual Framework
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UX Design Ideas for Applying the Principle
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Plugin-inspired feature concepts that puts the principle into action
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Challenges & limitations of each principle
A Quadrant Visual Framework for Mapping UX Principles
After organizing the ten principles into four focus areas, I created a two-axis framework to show how they vary by user vs. platform control and whether they address direct or indirect FOMO. This helps clarify how each principle functions within the overall user experience.
Each principle has been thoughtfully placed within this framework. You can read the rationale for its specific placement on its individual principle page.
Each principle has been thoughtfully placed within this framework based on its core mechanism and how it interacts with user behavior and platform design. The rationale for each placement is explained in more detail on its individual principle page.
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User-Controlled: These are platform features or design elements that the platform provides, but users have more options to customize how they function based on personal preferences. For example, many social media apps allow users to adjust which types of notifications they receive.
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Platform-Controlled: These are features that are applied by the platform as default settings, with limited options for user adjustment. While users may engage with them in different ways, the core design and behavior are mostly determined by the platform. For example, some platforms automatically determine the order of posts in the main feed based on engagement or relevance, without giving users the option to change how that order is set.
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Direct FOMO: These principles minimize clear and recognizable feelings of missing out. They target the fear users may have of missing rewarding experiences they are not part of. For example, seeing only the curated highlights and positive moments of others’ lives can intensify social comparison and make users feel like they are missing out on a better, more fulfilling life.
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Indirect FOMO: These principles minimize subtler types of FOMO that are less obvious but still create feelings of missing out. These feelings may come from comparison or other indirect triggers. For example, infinite scroll can make users feel like they need to keep scrolling to avoid missing something important, but due to information overload, there is always more content to miss.
ScrollPal: A Plugin Concept to Reduce FOMO
ScrollPal: Your mindful companion across social media!
What It Is
ScrollPal is a third-party plugin created as part of a thesis research project. It provides gentle, in-the-moment support to help users stay emotionally aware while using social media.
How It Works
ScrollPal integrates across platforms and begins with a short onboarding process. When users first install the plugin, they answer a few questions about how they typically experience FOMO. This helps personalize their experience from the start. Over time, ScrollPal also learns from how users interact with social media, gradually identifying patterns related to their FOMO triggers and behaviors.
What It Offers
Over time, it delivers personalized nudges, emotional check-ins, and reminders that help reduce FOMO and promote healthier engagement.
Why It Matters
Changing the design of existing social media platforms comes with major business challenges. Instead, ScrollPal empowers users to engage with social media in a more mindful and emotionally aware way by offering subtle, in-the-moment support to reduce feelings of FOMO and promote intentional online behavior, without asking users to quit or avoid the platforms they use.
Conclusion and Future Directions
This research set out to explore how user experience design can help reduce the emotional impact of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) in social media use, particularly among college students. By combining qualitative research methods with participatory design activities, the project identified behavioral patterns, emotional triggers, and opportunities for mindful engagement.
A key outcome of this work is the development of ten user-centered UX design principles, each offering practical guidance for designing healthier social media experiences. These principles were grounded in real user stories and behaviors, and informed the concept of a third-party plugin that supports users in managing their FOMO in intentional and reflective ways.
While this research focused on concept development and early-stage insights, there are many opportunities to expand and deepen the work in future iterations. These include:
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Prototype development and usability testing of the plugin across different social media platforms to evaluate its effectiveness in reducing FOMO.
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Collaborating with mental health professionals to incorporate their insights into the development of the plugin and other design-based solutions.
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Extending the research to include a broader age range and diverse demographics to explore how different groups experience FOMO and what design strategies are most effective for each.
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Quantitative validation of emotional patterns and FOMO types through larger-scale surveys or behavioral data tracking.
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Exploring how FOMO-reducing design strategies can align with the business models and monetization goals of social media platforms, to create healthier user experiences without compromising platform sustainability.
By sharing these findings, the hope is to encourage further conversations and innovations that prioritize emotional well-being alongside engagement in digital spaces.
Professional Growth and Reflections
#1 More Questions, Better Problems
There were moments in the research when I expected clarity: more ideas, more direction. Instead, I often left with even more questions. At first, that felt like a setback. But over time, I realized that generating stronger questions helped me understand the problem more deeply. Not everything needs to lead to an immediate solution. Sometimes, sitting with uncertainty sharpens your thinking more than rushing toward an answer.
#2 Adaptability Enables Deeper Insights
While structured planning is essential in user research, some of the most meaningful insights emerged when I adapted in real time. During interviews and co-design/participatory focus groups, I learned to read participants' cues and introduce follow-up questions or spontaneous activities that aligned with their energy and context. This flexibility improved participant engagement and led to richer, more nuanced responses. It reinforced the importance of responsiveness in qualitative research.
#3 Making Meaning from Messiness
The real challenge was not gathering data but making sense of it. Stories about FOMO often felt emotional and fragmented, but hidden within them were patterns waiting to be uncovered. I learned to listen for recurring themes, organize scattered narratives, and translate them into actionable design insights. That process of turning complexity into clarity is where the core of my design thinking took shape.
#4 It’s Not a Focus Group, It’s a Conversation
Designing co-creation activities involved much more than putting sticky notes on a wall. I had to create a space where people felt safe enough to share vulnerable moments, such as feeling excluded, overlooked, or anxious online. The most generative ideas came not from structured prompts, but from open dialogue, casual remarks, and moments of shared reflection. Real participation starts with trust, not templates.
