The Fear of Missing Out- FOMO
Have you ever felt that you are missing out on your dreams? Have you ever wanted to do everything at once? Have you ever felt like the time is running short and you have so much to do? Have you ever felt like 24 hours a day is not enough for you? We all have experienced this situation at some point of time. Besides, many of us are nowadays experiencing the fear of missing out on the enjoyment others are having. It is something that just makes you agitated.
You can handle your busy schedules, make the best use of your caliber by putting all your efforts and can overcome the fear of missing out on your dreams but missing out the opportunity or the fun others are having is also growing in this era of technology. Experts have a term for this fear; FOMO (fear of missing out) is “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent”. It is a social disorder that makes people feel they are missing an opportunity for social interaction and that’s what makes them obsessively check e-mails, whatsapping, texting, posting on facebook timeline, uploading pictures on instagram and using every social networking site to keep themselves up to date. These people are always accustomed to the outside world and also they fear that others are performing better and are experiencing better lifestyle.
We can blame this social anguish to the fast advancing technology, the face to face communication has now taken a back seat and people have started preferring social networking sites. People post their day to day activities, achievements and everything. A psychological dependence to being online leads to anxiety, stress, depression and a fear of missing out. Such people are always stressed about what they are missing instead of focusing on what they have. They will go to all the parties, social gatherings etc just to ensure that they are not missing out on anything. Everyone wants to stand out of the crowd. Everyone wants to have many friends and followers, which is the main cause of fear of missing out. They compare their likes and followers with that of their friends. There are many students who get depressed when they don’t get the college of their own choice and start comparing themselves with those who get better colleges. Here, arises the fear of missing out. This leads to anxiety and have a negative impact on students, leaving them no scope of improvement and it just makes them hopeless.
Whereas, instead of focusing on what they are missing, they have to focus on their dreams and should not underestimate themselves. After all, you only live once.
