FOMO can also lead some people to do or say things they typically wouldn’t just to appear “in the know” or get in with a “cool” crowd. Experiencing FOMO may make you feel like you aren’t as connected to the latest happenings and norms of society as you would like to be or “should” be. If you’ve ever sat at home wondering what you were missing, stared at your phone longingly waiting for a text, or struggled between choosing which event to decline on the same night, it might have been FOMO. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘FOMO.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. “It’s the unique type of anxiety that prompts us to worry that everyone is hanging out without us — and not telling us about it while they’re doing it,” Lucia Peters writes for Bustle. While FoMO is the fear of missing out, MoMO is the mystery of missing out.
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She specializes in writing about mental health, healthy aging and overall wellness. For six years, she was an editor and senior writer at Well+Good, covering everything from food trends to public health issues like the opioid epidemic. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University with a bachelor’s degree in magazine journalism. In the digital age, FOMO often leads to a constant checking of social media to see what your friends are doing. If you feel you can, try to take a full week off for your first social media break.
Social media
While social media can be a big cause of FOMO, it certainly isn’t the only culprit. The feeling of wanting to fit in and belong far outdates the Internet. If you are experiencing FOMO regularly, there are ways to overcome it.
Research on FOMO has repeatedly shown that young people experience more FOMO than older people. Part of it might have to do with the way young people interact with technology three different types of enterprise systems chron com and social media. (Recall that the term rose to prominence on social media.) It also might have to do with young people’s desire to explore and experience all that life has to offer. Older people, because they have a wider set of experiences under their belt, may be less susceptible to FOMO.
Social Networking Sites
FOMO can affect anyone, but certain people are at higher risk for FOMO if they have an underlying mental health condition or have low level of self-esteem. Of course, social media isn’t all bad, but it can be particularly harmful if your personal relationship with your body image is in disarray. And in particular, anxiety disorder and depression both lend themselves to experiencing FOMO more frequently and with longer lasting effects. In 2013, for instance, researcher Andrew Przybylski and his team at Oxford University conducted a study in which they found that nearly three quarters of young adults suffer from FOMO. In their study, they discovered that people’s fear of missing out causes them to continuously check social media and negatively compare their lives to the supposedly better lives their friends are leading. Although FOMO is strongly correlated with social media usage, it is important to remember that it is a very real and common feeling among people of all ages.
- While a 2022 study suggests depressive and anxious symptoms worsen the longer we spend on social media.
- Temporarily remove those apps, set daily limits on how much you will use them, or cull your feel to remove people who make you feel bad about yourself or your life.
- Because the teenage brain is still developing, teens may engage in such actions without considering the lasting consequences.
- You’re late-night scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, and suddenly, you stumble on a series of photos or videos of your friends or family having fun without you.
It involves a deep sense of envy—and it can take a serious toll on your self-esteem. If you feel like talking with a therapist could be helpful but don’t know where to start, check out Psych Central’s comprehensive guide to finding mental health support. If your fear of missing out has severely affected your day-to-day life and functioning, therapy may be a good option to help you regain clarity and balance. The need to stay constantly engaged, and constantly up to date, coupled with the often-filtered nature of social media can foster a negative self-comparison with the sort of distorted reality that exists online. FoMO is a complex feeling phenomenon that can be linked to several mental health outcomes. Emily Laurence is a journalist, freelance writer and certified health coach living in Raleigh, North Carolina.
While social media likely isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, how we use it and how often we use it certainly has a direct impact on our ability to experience FOMO. It is common to post on social media to keep a record of the fun things you do. However, you may find yourself noticing a little too much about whether people are validating your experiences online. If this is the case, you may want to take some of your photos and memories offline and keep a personal journal of your best memories, either online or on paper. Research shows that a fear of missing out can stem from unhappiness and dissatisfaction with life and that these feelings can propel us to use social media more.
It helps to know that our attempts to alleviate feelings of FOMO can often lead to behaviors that exacerbate it. However, understanding where the problem lies can be a great first step in overcoming it. Therefore, your sense of “normal” becomes skewed and you seem to be doing worse than your peers. You might see detailed photos of your friends enjoying fun times without you, which is something that people may not have been so readily aware best ecn brokers in 2023 fee comparison included of in past generations.
What is FoMO and FoBO?
If you’ve ever scrolled through your social media how to make your own cryptocurrency feed and felt like there was something missing from your life, then you know exactly how FOMO feels. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one version of talk therapy where a therapist can help you recognize triggers for anxious or depressive thoughts and then help you create better ways to cope with them. Tuning out from digital spaces — like social media and breaking news — can help you become more present and intentional in your everyday life.