Have you heard of one of the latest phenomenons around? FoMO? FoMO is short for fear of missing out.. but missing out from what?
Do you find yourself scrolling through your social media all the time? Do you go into alarm mode as soon as your phone goes dead? Do you feel irritated when your mobile data is slow? If you answered yes, to one of the previous you are being “contaminated” with this fear of missing out..
Nowadays, FoMO is increasing due to an increase in social media use. This does not mean that FoMO is only related to social media. However, social media has made FoMO more accessible. A lot of people find themselves scrolling endlessly through their newsfeed all over Instagram, Facebook and the rest of social media accounts. We scroll to see and read about what people are up to, who is getting all the fancy ‘likes’, what’s the current issue, and so on.
But why is it that as soon as you reach the bottom of your newsfeed, your finger glides back up to swipe and refresh the page to view everything all over again? We engage in this behaviour because we want to know the latest news that is on the news feed. FoMO can elicit feelings of anxiety or fear of being left. Reading about FoMO makes you realise that we are all engaging in it, doesn’t it?
Do you want to minimise your FoMO? Tune in to the next blog where I will be writing about ways to minimise FoMO… until then… go scroll – because by the time you read this.. who knows what you missed out on!
– Danica Cassar is a second year psychology student at the University of Malta. Her main interest in the field is play therapy and looks to further her career in the sector. Danica is an intern at Willingness.com.mt.