Present in Class, Elsewhere Online: Fear of Missing Out as a Modest Predictor of Cyberslacking among Indonesian First Year Health Sciences Students
Keywords:
Basic psychological needs, Cyberloafing, Digital distraction, Effect size, Sensitivity analysisAbstract
Cyberslacking, the nonacademic use of the internet during instruction, may undermine learning in demanding health sciences curricula. Drawing on Self Determination Theory, this study examined whether fear of missing out (FoMO) predicted cyberslacking among first year students and how robust this prediction was to unmeasured confounding. In a predictive correlational design, 79 first year students of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universitas Jambi, Indonesia, completed the Online Fear of Missing Out Inventory (α = .86) and the Cyberslacking Scale (α = .91). Simple linear regression was supplemented by sensitivity analyses for omitted variable bias. FoMO positively predicted cyberslacking (β = .27, 95% CI [.05, .46], p = .016), yet it explained only 7.3% of the variance, a small effect (f² = .08). The inference would be overturned if 19% of the estimate reflected bias or if an omitted confounder, such as device exposure, correlated about .25 with both variables. FoMO was therefore a statistically significant but modest and only moderately robust predictor, with more than 90% of the variance in cyberslacking attributable to other factors. FoMO oriented digital literacy should be one component of broader strategies addressing self regulation, instructional engagement, and classroom device norms.
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