Personal moderation configurations on Facebook: Exploring the roles of fear of missing out, social media addiction, norms, and platform trust

PPersonal moderation tools on social media platforms let users control their news feeds by configuring acceptable toxicity thresholds for their feed content or muting inappropriate accounts. This research examines how four critical psychosocial factors — fear of missing out (FoMO), social media addiction, subjective norms, and trust in moderation systems — shape Facebook users’ configuration of these tools. Findings from surveying a nationally representative sample of 1,061 participants show that FoMO and social media addiction make Facebook users more vulnerable to content-based harms by reducing their likelihood of adopting personal moderation tools to hide inappropriate posts. In contrast, descriptive and injunctive norms positively influence the use of these tools whereas trust in Facebook’s moderation systems also significantly affects users’ engagement with personal moderation. This analysis highlights qualitatively different pathways through which FoMO and social media addiction make affected users disproportionately unsafe and offers solutions to address this challenge.