The Fear of Missing Out

What is it FOMO? For those of you who don’t already know, FOMO stands for the “fear of missing out” and has been known to cause immense stress. FOMO has grown into a highly contagious disease that is commonly spread through word of mouth and doesn’t require any physical contact. FOMO can strike anyone at anytime. Here are few possibly scenarios.

1. You have a huge midterm exam on Monday and you really shouldn’t be hitting up your usual JBR’s Friday night. This is weird for you; you begin to experience a feeling taking over your body that something really big is going to happen tonight and you’re going to miss out. Oh my god, it is like the end of the world. For one, let’s get a grip. Realistically, the chance of anything majorly spectacular going on within the walls of Jimmy Robert Raymonds besides drinking your face off, dancing up a storm, or a 30 second bitch fight in the bathroom because one girl tried to cut the line, is highly unlikely. Would you even remember in the morning anyways? No, probably not.

2. I’m just going to assume that everyone reading this article is addicted to his or her BlackBerry or iPhone. If you don’t have either of those devices, please go to Masonville immediately because that’s another serious issue that needs to be dealt with. Anyways, FOMO can also take place through your phone. Why? Because if you were to calculate how much time you spend either Tweeting, or Facebook creeping/status updating, I am almost positive that you are addicted. Aren’t we all? Social networking has given everyone the ability to keep tabs on each others lives, whether you want it that way or not. So the asshole who decides to cheat on his girlfriend gets discovered because a friend of a friend of your girl friend’s saw and BBM’d her friend, who has never met you but has you on Facebook, your friend then messages you, while you go on Premierlife.ca the next day to see a picture of them in the photo gallery from Footwork Fridays. Crazy, eh? Well people, sorry to tell you, but we’ve turned our lives into one big social networking movie, everyone is connected in one way or another. We just can’t get enough.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but do you find yourself freaking out the moment you have no service or are not receiving any messages? Are you constantly finding yourself pushing “reconcile now” in an attempt to retrieve them? Or when you just get off your five hour shift, do you run to your phone as if someone had died just to check the messages or status updates you missed the past five hours? Please just try to justify how you are not addicted.

3. I am just going to put this one out on the table–GIRLS AND YOUR DAMN PICTURES (although I am so very guilty of this). Us women constantly feel the need to take pictures 24 hours a day to capture every single possible moment. Oh hey, how about we take yet another photo of you dancing, or taking a shot, or doing the duck face, or sticking out your tongue, or giving the peace sign… Really? It is time to tone it down. Does anyone really know why girls feel the need to take pictures? It’s simple–we like to show everyone on Facebook how hot we are and how much fun we have in order to give you FOMO when you look at our photo albums from the weekend. Documenting our lives is what we do best. Notice how if you miss out on a night, seeing pictures of all your friends having what looks to be an awesome time is somewhat depressing? Yeah, that’s FOMO for ya.

Fear of Missing Out

 So how do you cure it? It is actually quite easy.

1. Say YES to every invitation, no matter what.
2. Only sleep during non-peak hours (4am-9am).
3. Have your own parties.
4. Be dressed up and pumped up!
5. Maintain a strong line of communication.
6. Always have a good time, or at least look like it.

Realistically though, we’re all doomed.