Social media users are experiencing a wide range of adverse emotional reactions to activities on social networking sites, including fatigue, burnout, exhaustion, annoyance, and disinterest in communicating, which are collectively referred to as social media fatigue (SMF) due to the substantial amount of time they spend on social media platforms. The literature review showed various potential antecedents of social media fatigue. This paper investigates the potential influence of technostress (compulsive SNS use and information overload) and the psychosocial component (fear of missing out), as after conducting a pre-focus group to identify the critical variables, these were found of most relevance in Egypt.
\The information was gathered via an online poll of 400 Egyptian college students using the quote sampling. Several standardized scales, such as the Social Media Fatigue Scale (SMFS), the Fear of Missing Out Scale (FOMO), the Compulsive Use Scale, and the Information Overload Scale, were used for the study participants. The results showed a strong correlation between social media fatigue and three stressors: compulsive media use, FOMO, information overload, and fear of missing out.
The results advance a more sophisticated theoretical comprehension of the emergence of social media fatigue. In conclusion, identifying elements contributing to weariness facilitates the proposal of intervention measures by health professionals and social media service providers to alleviate this issue.