The statement I am going to evaluate is as follows: “the research provides evidence that the link between materialism and adolescent problematic smartphone use was partially mediated by FOMO” (Liu et al., 2021). The article addresses the essential question about the fear of missing out syndrome (FOMO) influence on adolescent smartphone addiction. This problem has been an integral part of modern smartphone users due to the development of social networking sites and marketing through personal profiles. Through the number of surveys, the researchers estimated that the FOMO syndrome causes smartphone addiction and mental problems with treating the success and happiness adequately. As a result, active social media users experience the severe negative implications of FOMO on their life.
To estimate the dependence of the FOMO and smartphone addiction, the researchers used the descriptive type of research. A series of surveys were held to determine the behavioral patterns and personal attitudes towards the different psychological concepts, such as success and material values-related happiness. The researchers’ main aim was to observe and describe the experiment subjects’ behavior to formulate the FOMO-related psychological problem. The study results showed the direct correlation between FOMO and smartphone addiction.
Moreover, the surveys showed the inadequate relation of the subjects to determine the success and happiness through the materialism. The research included the appropriate controlling by the professional psychologists who interpreted the results. The authors also clearly describe the limitations of the study. Relationships between the variables are interdependent: one factor causes another. Variables are interdependent and cause generalized changes in life-values perception by social media users. Based on the descriptive research aiming at assessing the subjects’ behavior through the survey, the provided statement can be estimated as reasonable and well-supported by the practical results.
Reference
Lei, L., Liu, S., Long, J., &Wang, P. (2021). Materialism and adolescent problematic smartphone use: The mediating role of fear of missing out and the moderating role of narcissism. Current Psychology, 49, 5842–5850. Web.