Some people order everything they see on the menu in a restaurant so that they don’t miss out on a great dish, some will read all the articles in a newspaper like a crazy human so that they don’t miss out on any news, and some will contact every person in their phone diary to not miss out on any gossip. There are so many kinds of FOMOs, but let’s talk about FOMO, which social media have fueled in today’s society.
Do you check your phone every ten seconds for a Whatsapp message? Every two minutes for an Instagram post and every fifteen minutes for a Facebook notification?
If the answer is yes, then my friend, you have fallen sick with the illness of F.O.M.O, i.e., Fear Of Missing Out.
Go ahead, now blame the world for getting you addicted to your phone or laptop.
Checking your mails every hour for work is one thing and logging into social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to be on top of everything is another. It’s a personal choice if you want this disease to overpower your mind or not.
Studies show that 57% of people aged 18-34 have registered on multiple social networking sites, and 27% of people check their Facebook feeds and tweets as soon as they wake up. Gone are the days when we used to thank the Lord for giving us yet another beautiful morning.
Staring at your phone constantly for the message that no one even has sent yet or scrolling through Fb or Instagram, looking at other people’s holiday pictures and hitting like with a heavy heart, you know the deal of pain it causes you.
FOMO is the social media version of “doosre ki thaali me jyada ghee” or “The Grass is greener on the other side.”
We compare our lives with what we see in the feeds, from the sizes of our cars and houses to the food we eat, the places we visit, the jobs we do, the clothes we wear, and the pets we own, even nail arts. There is just no end to this despair. Every time someone indulges in this, they feel more and more dissatisfied with their respective lives.
Instead of comparing our lives with others, we should look up to people and draw inspiration from them to make our life better. These social networking sites that were meant to bring the world closer, in actuality, have created an invisible wall among us. The person with FOMO may not be missing out on anything in a virtual world but missing out a great deal from the people sitting next to them in reality.
No matter how hard you try, you will definitely miss out on something in life, but if you spend your time worrying about the things you missed, you will end up missing the things that actually matter.
Time is finite, while the things to be done are infinite.
“Life is too short to be living in fear of missing out.”