TITLE:
Living Well, Missing Out Less? Exploring the Associations between Well-Being, Fear of Missing Out, and Problematic Digital Use
AUTHORS:
Hyoungkoo Khang, Miaohong Huang
KEYWORDS:
Fear of Missing Out (FoMO), Well-Being, Psychological Richness, Self-Control, Problematic Social Media Use, Problematic Smartphone Use
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Journalism and Communication,
Vol.14 No.2,
June
22,
2026
ABSTRACT: Digital technologies offer opportunities for connection and growth but are also associated with problematic patterns of use. This study examined how three dimensions of well-being, hedonic well-being, eudaimonic well-being, and psychological richness, relate to fear of missing out (FoMO) and problematic digital use, and whether self-control moderates these associations. Using a cross-sectional survey of 494 U.S. adults and structural equation modeling, we tested an integrative model linking well-being orientations to problematic social media use and problematic smartphone use through FoMO, while also examining self-control as a potential regulatory factor. Results indicated that eudaimonic well-being was positively associated with FoMO, which in turn related to higher problematic social media and smartphone use. FoMO showed strong positive associations with both problematic social media and problematic smartphone use and statistically mediated the associations between eudaimonic well-being and both outcomes. Psychological richness was directly associated with higher levels of problematic digital use independent of FoMO, suggesting a pathway tied to novelty seeking and experiential variety rather than social-comparison concern. Self-control was negatively associated with problematic digital use, but it did not moderate FoMO-problematic use associations. These findings refine assumptions that well-being is uniformly protective in digital contexts and suggest that distinct orientations toward the good life may relate to digital vulnerability through different motivational processes. Implications for theory and future intervention research are discussed.