The Reality Behind FOMO

It’s one day after black Friday and despite the mass amount of deals you were presented with just a few hours earlier, you find yourself with not just a mountain of items but a big hole in your bank account. People all across the world are asking themselves what happened to the few items they originally planned to buy after being caught up in sales, “just too good to pass up”. This very situation is way more common than you would think and it along with many other decisions made in our everyday lives may be affected or even driven by something called FOMO. 

Fomo stands for the fear of missing out and is a physiological phenomenon that almost everyone has experienced at least once. Fomo means being anxious/having anxiety that you are missing out on an exciting event, experience, or thing. People with FOMO may also be worried about missing out on information that could be “beneficial” to them or important in some way to help keep them “in the loop”. It stems from feeling like other people's lives are better than yours or that you aren't doing enough/specific things that could make your life better. 

While it was only first recognized in 1996 by Dr Dan Herman, it became even more prevalent with the rise of social media. This is because social media is over-saturated with advertising and is a common place for oversharing online. This gives us insight into people's lives, accurate or not, which over time can become both overwhelming and demoralizing. Seeing people we know and even strangers having these fun experiences all the time is a very common trigger for FOMO as it can easily make us feel left out, let alone buy into advertisements for things we never even knew existed.

While FOMO on a small scale can cause anxious feelings or anxiety, decisions made due to FOMO can have large effects. In a survey conducted by TD Ameritrade, 73% of millennials said they had spent money they didn’t have on experiences to avoid FOMO.” as Trustpulse quotes “More than half of people, around 56% are worried about missing important events, news, and social updates if they’re away from social media accounts”. These constant comparisons driven by FOMO self-esteem can negatively impact our self-esteem and confidence. This in turn leads to increased feelings of loneliness, discontentment, stress, and anxiety. Social pressure created by FOMO may even cause you to attend events you would otherwise be uninterested in.

Unfortunately buying into FOMO doesn’t take it away, but there are some things you can do to reduce FOMO-related stress in your everyday life. Because fomo is so commonly tied and triggered by social media, taking a few hours or days off can help act as a digital detox, and bring you back to what's actually relevant and happening around you. Since FOMO also stems from comparison, practicing mindfulness through activities like meditation and journaling can help center yourself more on yourself. If you want to be less affected by FOMO it can help to start recognizing its signs and avoid making rash decisions that could be influenced by this anxiety. Sometimes questioning your motivation before doing something is all it takes to pinpoint a FOMOFOMO behaviour in your life. After all, the first step towards action is awareness.

In conclusion, FOMO (the fear of missing out), while certainly annoying, can be both identified and worked against. It is a physiological response that can be triggered in certain situations and often when online, especially since it is often used in advertising campaigns and posts to raise sales and views, taking advantage of our desire and need to stay connected and relevant. We are all susceptible to FOMO in some way but simply being aware of it can help both you and I make more conscious choices every day to ignore FOMO and act against it.

Works Cited

Collins, Sonya. “What Is FOMO and How Do You Deal With It?” WebMD, 12 July 2024, https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/fomo. Accessed 6 December 2024.

“FOMO Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, 2 November 2024, https://www.merriam- webster.com/dictionary/FOMO. Accessed 6 December 2024.

McGinnis, Patrick J. “Fear of missing out.” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_of_missing_out. Accessed 6 December 2024.

Sharma, Aditya. Fear of missing out: A brief overview of origin, theoretical underpinnings and relationship with mental health, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8283615/#:~. Accessed 6 December 2024.