Internet-related Behavior and Mind Wandering

Abstract

Awareness of attention, especially mind-wandering, is more prominent nowadays because of the development of technology that empowers a person to do several jobs and focus on several things simultaneously. This study examines internet-related behavior, namely online fear of missing out and compulsive internet use on mind wandering on active internet users. This study involved 327 internet users aged 17-40 years selected by convenience sampling. This research confirms that fear of missing out and compulsive internet use positively correlate with mind wandering. Furthermore, mind wandering and fear of missing are contrarily related with age.This study explicates that the contribution of internet-related behavior is significant to the incidence of mind wandering, which proves the influence of internet use on inattention, especially in young internet active users. Therefore, the younger generation must be cognizant of and monitor the use and impact of internet use, especially concerning the necessity to maintain focus when handling task demands. This study proposes addressing the adverse consequence of FOMO, compulsive internet use, and mind-wandering on productivity and wellbeing further, notably for the young age.