Chapter 11 Exercises: Fear of Missing Out

Reflection Exercises

Exercise 1 [Reflection] Keep a FOMO journal for one week. Each time you notice yourself feeling anxious about what others might be doing without you — whether prompted by social media or by other means — record the trigger, the intensity of the feeling (1–10), and what behavioral response you had. At the end of the week, review your entries. What patterns do you notice about when FOMO is most intense? What behaviors does it drive?

Exercise 2 [Reflection] Think of the last time you experienced strong FOMO. Using Przybylski et al.'s self-determination theory framework, analyze which unmet needs (competence, autonomy, relatedness) were most activated in that moment. Write a one-page reflection on whether the FOMO accurately signaled an unmet need or whether the social media environment was creating a false alarm.

Exercise 3 [Reflection] Recall a moment from before you had a smartphone — or from a period when you were temporarily without one — when you experienced something pleasurable that you later heard others had also experienced. How did learning about the shared experience feel? Compare this with how it feels to discover in real time, via social media, that others are having an experience without you. What differences do you notice, and what do those differences reveal about the role of immediacy in FOMO?

Exercise 4 [Reflection] Write a letter from the perspective of your future self to your current self, addressing the last time you spent more than two hours monitoring social media out of FOMO rather than genuine interest. What would your future self want your current self to know about how the time was spent and what it cost you?

Exercise 5 [Reflection] Rate yourself on the ten items of Przybylski et al.'s FOMO scale (see Chapter 11 text for items). Then examine your score in light of your self-assessment of how satisfied your needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness currently are. Do the patterns align? Where do they diverge, and why?

Research Exercises

Exercise 6 [Research] Locate and read the original Przybylski et al. (2013) paper "Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out" published in Computers in Human Behavior. Write a two-page summary of the study's methodology, key findings, and limitations. What questions does the paper raise that subsequent research has or has not yet addressed?

Exercise 7 [Research] Research the history of the Instagram Stories feature from its launch in August 2016 to the present. Using publicly available reporting and product announcements, construct a timeline of major changes to the feature. At each change point, identify what behavioral objective the change appears to serve. What patterns do you see in how the feature has evolved?

Exercise 8 [Research] Find three peer-reviewed studies published since 2018 that examine the relationship between Instagram use and body image or self-esteem in adolescents. For each study, note the methodology, sample, key finding, and any limitations. Then write a brief synthesis: what does the collective evidence suggest, and where do the studies disagree?

Exercise 9 [Research] Investigate the "Facebook Files" reporting by the Wall Street Journal (2021) regarding Instagram's internal research on teenage girls' mental health. Using the original reporting and subsequent commentary, construct an account of what Meta knew, when they knew it, and what actions they did and did not take in response. What does this case reveal about the relationship between corporate knowledge and corporate action?

Exercise 10 [Research] Research the neuroscience of social exclusion. Starting with Eisenberger et al.'s (2003) fMRI study of Cyberball, trace the development of research on the neural basis of social pain. How has understanding of social exclusion's neurological basis evolved? What implications does this research have for the design of social media platforms?

Exercise 11 [Research] Find data on smartphone use rates at night among adolescents in the United States. Using at least three data sources (surveys, research studies, industry reports), construct a picture of how many adolescents use their phones after the time they are supposed to be sleeping, and what content they are consuming. What are the documented health consequences?

Analysis Exercises

Exercise 12 [Analysis] Conduct a content analysis of your own Instagram or TikTok feed (or a publicly accessible account if you do not use these platforms) over a 30-minute period. Categorize each piece of content you encounter as: (a) positive life event, (b) neutral content, (c) negative life event, or (d) other. Calculate the percentage in each category. What does your analysis reveal about the balance of content in algorithmic feeds? What are the limitations of your analysis method?

Exercise 13 [Analysis] Select a social media platform and systematically analyze its design features for FOMO mechanics. For each feature you identify, describe: (1) what the feature does, (2) the psychological mechanism through which it creates FOMO, and (3) whether there is a plausible non-FOMO explanation for the feature's design. Present your analysis in a table with a brief narrative summary.

Exercise 14 [Analysis] Compare the design of three different social media platforms' ephemeral content features (e.g., Instagram Stories, Snapchat Stories, BeReal). For each, note: content duration, visibility settings, engagement indicators, and notification behavior. How do these design choices differ, and what different FOMO dynamics do they create? Which design is most FOMO-inducing, and why?

Exercise 15 [Analysis] Apply Festinger's social comparison theory to a specific type of social media content — for example, travel photos, fitness posts, or graduation announcements. Identify: (1) what dimensions of self-evaluation are activated, (2) whether the comparison is primarily upward or downward, (3) what emotional responses the content is likely to trigger, and (4) what design changes might reduce the comparison pressure while preserving the content type's value.

Exercise 16 [Analysis] Maya's story illustrates a four-hour FOMO spiral. Using the psychological concepts from this chapter, analyze each stage of her experience: the initial trigger, the emotional response, the behavioral response, the escalation, and the failure to resolve. At which points could the spiral have been interrupted, and by what intervention (individual, social, or design-level)?

Exercise 17 [Analysis] Evaluate the argument that "JOMO is a privilege." Who has the easiest access to Joy of Missing Out, and who faces the highest costs for opting out of social media monitoring? Consider dimensions including age, socioeconomic status, geographic location, professional field, and social role. What does this analysis suggest about the distribution of FOMO's burdens?

Creative Exercises

Exercise 18 [Creative] Write a short story (800–1,000 words) from the perspective of an algorithm. The algorithm is deciding what content to show a seventeen-year-old user on a Friday evening. Describe the algorithm's "reasoning" — the signals it considers, the predictions it makes, and the content it selects. Then, in a brief postscript, reflect on what your creative exercise reveals about the relationship between algorithmic logic and human emotional experience.

Exercise 19 [Creative] Design an alternative version of Instagram Stories with no FOMO mechanics. Your redesign can change any feature of the current design, but must preserve what users genuinely value about the format (sharing recent moments with their network). Present your redesign as a product brief with: feature description, psychological rationale for each choice, and anticipated user response.

Exercise 20 [Creative] Create a "FOMO map" — a visual representation of the social media design features, psychological mechanisms, and behavioral outcomes described in this chapter. Your map should show the relationships between elements, the feedback loops, and the points of potential intervention. Any format is acceptable: flowchart, concept map, illustrated diagram, or other visual form.

Exercise 21 [Creative] Write Dr. Aisha Johnson's full ethics memo to the Velocity Media product team regarding the proposed Stories format, including the twenty-four-hour expiration feature. The memo should be 500–700 words, professionally formatted, and should demonstrate rigorous engagement with the psychological research while being accessible to a non-academic audience. What recommendations does she make, and how does she frame the tension between business objectives and user wellbeing?

Exercise 22 [Creative] Write Marcus Webb's response to Dr. Johnson's memo, defending the Stories design while engaging seriously with her concerns. His response should not dismiss her arguments but should articulate a genuine product philosophy that acknowledges the tradeoffs. What values and assumptions underlie his position? Where is he genuinely persuasive, and where does his argument have weaknesses?

Group Exercises

Exercise 23 [Group] In groups of four, conduct a structured debate: two members argue that FOMO is primarily a design problem requiring structural solutions; two members argue that FOMO is primarily a psychological problem requiring individual and therapeutic solutions. After the debate, the full group should synthesize: what would a comprehensive approach that takes both perspectives seriously look like?

Exercise 24 [Group] As a group, conduct a "highlight reel audit." Each group member selects five recent social media posts from their own accounts and rates each post on a 1–5 scale for how accurately it represents their life at that moment (1 = heavily curated, 5 = fully authentic). Share and discuss: What drove the curation decisions? What does the collective audit reveal about the gap between social media presentation and lived experience?

Exercise 25 [Group] In groups of three, role-play the following scenario: Maya's parents are meeting with a school counselor to discuss Maya's FOMO-related distress. One group member plays Maya's parents (concerned about her phone use but unsure how to address it), one plays the school counselor (who has read the research but must give practical advice), and one plays Maya (who wants her distress acknowledged but also her autonomy respected). Debrief: What approaches were most effective? What tensions arose?

Exercise 26 [Group] Design a one-week "JOMO experiment" for your group. Collectively agree on specific social media behaviors to change (e.g., no social media after 9 PM, no checking during meals, turning off all non-essential notifications). Each member keeps a daily log of: how difficult the commitment was, what they noticed when they resisted the urge to check, and how their mood changed. At the end of the week, share results. What did the experiment reveal about the role of social media in managing anxiety vs. creating it?

Exercise 27 [Group] As a group, produce a five-minute video or podcast episode aimed at high school students explaining FOMO — what it is, why it happens, and what they can do about it. The content should be scientifically accurate, developmentally appropriate, and genuinely useful rather than dismissive or preachy. After producing the content, reflect on what choices you made and why, and what the experience of translating academic research for a general audience involved.

Extended Projects

Exercise 28 [Extended Project] Conduct an original survey study on FOMO in your campus or community. Using Przybylski et al.'s FOMO scale plus questions about social media use, sleep quality, and life satisfaction, survey at least 30 participants. Analyze your results, create visualizations, and write a research report (1,500–2,000 words) following standard social science report format. What did you find, and how does it compare to the published literature?

Exercise 29 [Extended Project] Over three weeks, keep a detailed ethnographic diary of your social media FOMO experiences. Include: triggers, emotional responses, behavioral responses, duration, and eventual resolution (or lack thereof). At the end of the three weeks, analyze your diary using the theoretical frameworks from this chapter. Write a 2,000-word autoethnographic analysis of your findings.

Exercise 30 [Extended Project] Interview five people from different age groups (e.g., 15–20, 25–35, 45–55, 65+) about their experience of feeling left out in the era of social media. Use a semi-structured interview format with questions drawn from this chapter's themes. Analyze the interviews for patterns and differences across age groups. What does the generational comparison reveal about how FOMO has changed with the proliferation of social media?

Exercise 31 [Extended Project] Research one country's regulatory approach to social media and adolescent mental health (e.g., Australia's social media age limit law, the EU's Digital Services Act, or the UK's Online Safety Act). Analyze: what problem is the regulation trying to solve, what mechanisms does it use, what evidence was it based on, and what critics have said about its likely effectiveness. Write a 2,000-word policy analysis.

Exercise 32 [Extended Project] Using publicly available data and research, construct a cost-benefit analysis of the FOMO mechanics designed into a major social media platform. On the benefit side: engagement increases, revenue impact, user-reported enjoyment of features. On the cost side: documented psychological harms, productivity losses, healthcare costs. What are the methodological challenges of such an analysis, and what does the attempt reveal about how we value different outcomes?

Exercise 33 [Extended Project] Design and prototype a social media feature intended to reduce FOMO while preserving social connection. Your design should be grounded in the psychological research from this chapter. Document your design process: what principles guided your choices, what tradeoffs you encountered, and how you resolved them. Present your prototype and a 1,500-word design rationale.

Exercise 34 [Extended Project] Write a literature review (2,500–3,000 words) on the relationship between social media use and sleep quality in adolescents. Your review should cover at least ten peer-reviewed studies, analyze methodological approaches and quality, identify areas of consensus and disagreement, and conclude with recommendations for future research.

Exercise 35 [Extended Project] Create a comprehensive resource guide for parents of teenagers navigating FOMO and social media. The guide should be based on the research from this chapter and related sources, written for a non-academic audience, and should include: an explanation of FOMO and why it is so powerful for adolescents; evidence-based strategies for reducing its impact; guidance on when to seek professional help; and a list of additional resources. Length: 1,500–2,000 words.