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Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, studies on the fear of missing out (FOMO) and students' academic performance tended to focus on adolescents, with university undergraduate students receiving far less attention. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, all organizations, establishments, and institutions have been compelled to close due to the virus' threat; as a result, classes have been shifted from traditional face-to-face learning to virtual learning. This correlational study utilized the Fear of Missing Out scale to explore the possible association between fear of missing out and academic performance as evaluated through the Grade Point Average of 409 Far Eastern University's (FEU) 3rd-year undergraduate students. The findings revealed that the participants' level of FOMO was moderate, and they had average academic performance. We found no significant correlation between FOMO and academic performance, which means that feeling left out was not associated with how students performed academically. Limitations were identified and explanations for the lack of such a relationship were made.
During the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), people were isolated, confined, and stressed. To compensate, social media have been an extensive platform for people to satiate their needs for entertainment, leisure, and associating with others. There are currently about 4.48 billion global citizens who are actively using social media, most of whom are adolescents and young adults, and due to the pandemic, it has increased in 2020 (Pew Researcher, 2021; as cited in Dean, 2021). However, feelings of anxiety, worry, and stress may arise as they become excessively inclined to use social media (David et al., 2017), which may later intensify to a phenomenon called fear of missing out (FOMO). Roberts and David (2019) noted that an individual could miss out on satisfying social experiences. There were 3.5 million college students who were forced to undertake a virtual learning set-up due to the surge of the COVID-19 virus in the Philippines (Joaquin et al., 2020). Academic performance may suffer because of the need to relate to others through social media platforms.
According to Gupta and Sharma (2021) FOMO is mechanized by two processes-the individual's perception of missing out, followed by an uncontrollable behavior to preserve their social relations. The phenomenon presents itself in problematic internet usage (PIU) behaviors such as responding...