FOMO!

 The Fear of Missing Out: FOMO

The fear of missing out was a term introduced in the year 2004, extensively used in the present scenario to describe a social media phenomenon. This word was included in the Oxford Dictionary in 2013. Psychologists defined it as “pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.” The characteristic feature includes the desire to stay continuously connected with what others are doing . It is a negative emotional state resulting from a need for social relatedness. It usually consists of two parts- firstly, the perception of missing out followed by a compulsive behavior to maintain these social connections.

An average person spends 147 minutes per day on social media sites. We are much more aware of what is happening in other people’s lives than our own. Most of all the celebrations we attend are more concentrated on the dress we are supposed to wear, the perfect pictures, and aesthetic looks inspired by Pinterest to be uploaded on Instagram. Following trends and influencers blindly, our individuality somewhere gets lost in the crowd. This constant urge to document every aspect of our lives on social media can lead to the experience of FOMO. Though FOMO is not a diagnosable psychological condition yet it can directly impact both the mental and physical health of an individual. Social media is not the major culprit for this condition. The constant urge to fit in the set standards of society and belong to groups has been prevalent far before the advent of the internet. 

Facebook launched in 2004 and it was one of the first major social spaces and it was a place where people could display their friendships and what they were doing through pictures and status updates. Natalie Christine Dattilo, Ph.D, the founder of Priority Wellness Group and an instructor of psychology at Harvard says,“FOMO includes both the perception of missing out, which triggers anxiety, and compulsive behaviors, like checking and refreshing sites, to maintain social connections. It is closely related to the fear of social exclusion or ostracism, which existed long before social media.” 

According to the 2021 report of Technological Forecasting and Social Change, FOMO can have some specific symptoms noted as follows:

• Obsessively checking social media to see what others are doing.
• Feeling mentally exhausted from social media.
• Experiencing negative feelings when comparing one’s life to what others seem to be doing on social media
• Overscheduling (trying to be everywhere at all times)
• Feeling physically tired
• Feeling sad, anxious or depressed
• Difficulty concentrating
• Having trouble sleeping

Teens and youth are at the highest risk of getting FOMO due to the increased amount of time spent online and their heightened need for social approval and belongingness. 

When we see a post on Instagram, Facebook or any other platform of social media that makes us happy, it increases the hormone dopamine in the brain, lighting up the brain’s reward system. Sometimes FOMO isn’t the only social media contributor to problems with mental health. A report titled “#TheStruggleIsReal: Fear of missing out (FoMO) and nomophobia can, but not always, occur together” explored the DEPENDENCE TO THEIR PHONES that humans are developing. Nomophobia, as the researchers explore, is the phobia of not having one’s phone. The researchers conducted a survey of university undergraduate students in order to find out how both FOMO and nomophobia overlap in their effect on social media users’ mental health. From a psychological perspective, they found that both FOMO and nomophobia are linked with addictive behaviours and that extensive smartphone and social media use are directly connected to lower self-esteem and greater emotional instability.FOMO is suggested to have a negative impact on an individual’s mental health. Frequently checking and refreshing social networking sites for alerts and notifications can heighten levels of anxiety. Receiving certain types of notifications can produce a rewarding feeling and when a new notification comes through, we may often anticipate this rewarding feeling. If the rewarding feeling does not come, this can instead cause frustration and anxiety for people. Social networking sites can be compensatory for those who struggle to communicate face-to-face, such as those with social anxiety. Pratigrah is providing different therapies to come out from different non-medical mental health issues.

TEESTA JOSHI

PRATIGRAH TEAM