Fear of missing out during a pandemic: the driving factors of telemedicine application acceptance

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic changed how society behaves. Travel and social restrictions, commonly associated with the term lockdown became popular and ubiquitous. Given the rise of gig economy and mobile app delivery in the past several years, combined with lockdowns during the pandemic, and the application of telemedicine becomes essential. Halodoc is one of the popular telemedicine applications in Indonesia, having several useful features such as text-based doctor consultation and prescription drug order-delivery, and Halodoc is easily preferred by many. This article explored the motivation behind using Halodoc as the preferred method of getting health service during the pandemic, behind the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the application, we found that fear of missing out (FOMO) has an indirect role in the application adoption in society, especially during lockdowns, where social interaction is limited to social media and other internet-based platforms. The reason why FOMO can be an important factor in technology adoption and how advertisers should explore FOMO is further discussed.