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. 2025 Apr 15;20(4):e0319034.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319034. eCollection 2025.

Fear of missing out, social media influencers, and the social, psychological and financial wellbeing of young consumers

Abbey Bartosiak  1 , Jung Eun Lee  2 , Cäzilia Loibl  1
Affiliations

Fear of missing out, social media influencers, and the social, psychological and financial wellbeing of young consumers

Abbey Bartosiak et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

This study examines the social, psychological, and financial wellbeing of younger consumers who follow social media influencers. The consumer panel MTurk was used to collect a U.S. sample of 863 adults aged between 18 and 40 who follow social media influencers. Structural equation modeling is used for data analysis. Greater fear of missing out is directly linked to lower levels of social, psychological, and financial wellbeing, however it is associated with stronger parasocial interactions with social media influencers. Parasocial interactions are, in turn, associated with higher levels of social, psychological, and financial wellbeing. This study is among the first to document the direct association of fear of missing out with lower social, psychological, and financial wellbeing and shows that parasocial interactions with social media influencers are a key pathway through which social media use can benefit the wellbeing of younger consumers.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Research model of the relationships tested in the study.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Structural equation modeling results.
Note: * p < .05, **p < .01, ***p < .001. Solid lines indicate significant results, p < .05. Dashed lines indicate insignificant results, p ≥  0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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