Over the past few years or so, Millennials have started to really worry about the“fear of missing out” — or FOMO.
You might getFOMO when you miss a big party. Or maybe you get it when you have to cut down on weekend activities (at least the ones that require money).
Whatever it is, you feel FOMO when you can’t do something you want to do. And it’s something I hear about all the time.
FOMO has grown so rapidly because of social media.Five or 10years ago, people didnt worry so much about what they weremissing outon, becausethey didn’t even know what it was.
Today, everything is broadcasted and shoved in our faces, whether through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Its difficult to avoidother people’s private lives.
Sure, you might log intoTwitter to check world news, but it wont be long until you scroll right into someones “batsh*t crazy” evening.
And, for a lot of people, this will lead to FOMO.
Ive always thought FOMO was kind of a silly concept. I mean, everyone has a life,andjust because you missed out onsomething thatother people were at doesnt mean your day is ruined.Theres always next weekend to party— if thats what youre really into — and there will always be another party.
Im not sure if people who are plagued by FOMO just really hatemissing out on things or if the phenomenonstems from a deeper place of insecurity. Whatever the case, its difficult to just ignore the relevance of this… condition.
And according toMichael Hogan,Ph.D,FOMO might affect us more than we think.
In an article for Psychology Today, Hogan refers toa 2013 study that defines FOMO as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent… the desire to stay continually connected to what others are doing.”
This study showed that FOMO, thoughexperienced by a large number of young people, is especially felt by males.
Additionally, people who reported high levels of FOMO also scored low onsatisfactionof basic psychological needs. People who feel more FOMO than others are also more likely to be attached to their phones. They tend to check all of theirsocial media sites from the moment they wake up to the time they go to sleep.
To these people, social media is more than just a source for news or a way to communicate with people they might not see every day. Rather, its a critically important part of their lives.
Hogan lays out the consequences of FOMO. To investigate them, he divided 76 Irish collegestudents into four groups and asked them to report on the most negative consequences of FOMO.
Out of 80 responses,“increased dissatisfaction with one’s life” and a “decrease in privacy” werereported as the two most negative consequences of FOMO.
This makes sense, since peoplewho experienceFOMO arelikely disappointed by their lives in comparison to the ones they see online.
Hogan then sought out connections between these 80 consequences by asking questions like, Does consequence A significantly aggravate consequence B? In other words, he wanted to see if two consequences affected other areas of ones life.
In the end, both increased dissatisfaction with one’s life” and a “decrease in privacy” directly and significantly exacerbated feelings of poorer self-image and a decrease inconcentration.
So, though FOMO might onlyseemto directly affect one partof our lives — how sad we feel about missing out on something fun — it can actually become a larger issue.
The scariest part, at least to me, is that theres very little we can do to combat FOMO. Its not necessarily something that comes from within; it’s something we receive from social media and thetransparency of people’s personal lives.
Butif youre someone who is aware of your own FOMO risk, research gives you more than enough reasons to nip it in the bud.
From my experience, social media — like anything — is great until you become dependent on it. Try tocut down before it starts affecting your life. Make sure you allow time in your day for real, face-to-face interactions, and try to avoid incessantly scrolling through yourfeeds.
At the end of the day, youll justbe wasting precious time from your own life to check in on the URL lives of others. If there issomething to be afraid of missing out on, it’s your life. Don’t track other people’s lives and forget about your own.
Read more: http://elitedaily.com/dating/fomo-affects-your-life/1270653/
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