In the year 1996, a certain Dr Dan Herman from the USA coined a term -- 'Fear Of Missing Out' or FOMO. The term has ever since been used frequently to measure human experience in varied purposes, especially to conclude mental health issues. Myriads of researches have been carried out, mental health counsellors and motivational speakers have been injecting motivations relentlessly to curb the stressful effects of FOMO; yet FOMO shows no sign to slow down.
FOMO is simply a state of mind or mental condition-- the feeling or perception of missing out on better things-- that Dr Herman defined by shrewd marketing policy. Marketers create gimmicks and illusions of better life experiences with their products which develops a sense of incompleteness within the self. This often leads to impulsive buy to match others but the sense of incompleteness never goes away.
There are hundreds of things that spark FOMO within one's mind. However, nothing ignites it like social media. From the fear of remaining in dark about the latest trends to the comment war controversy on a friends status update, Facebook scrolling becomes eternal. And the interesting part is, people often find productivity behind their 'not aimless' scrolling marathon. Niloy Hasan, an MBBS student from East-West Medical College, brushed off the notion of FOMO and explained 101 reasons to scroll down as long as the phone's battery allows.
"You never know what's waiting ahead; it's like Pandora's box," exclaimed Sakib while scrolling sincerely. His reading partner Raisa Richi is even more focused as she has, "...liked every medical science-related pages that post valuable information. I remain 24/7 updated regarding all the latest medical science information." This duo believes scrolling is equally important like turning over the pages of academic books.
The picture is somewhat similar in most cases to those who love scrolling on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for hours. According to OptinMonster data, Facebook has the biggest role to play in producing FOMO among people (72%). Instagram (14%), Twitter (11%), and Pinterest (8%) come afterwards. Another survey shows that around 45 per cent of users check in their social media profiles every 12 hours due to FOMO. 27 per cent of users are used to checking their profiles at once they wake up in the morning.
But, is it possible to overcome FOMO? The answer is hard, and it will be even harder if one has to overcome the fear of missing something on social media without leaving them. Again, leaving social media means losing connectedness. Is it, in any way, possible to check FOMO while remaining on social media?
The answer is ‘yes’ for Md Yasin Ali, a lecturer of Bangla literature at a college in the capital. He uses social media to connect to his students, share reading materials and other necessary things with them. In his opinion, "Leaving social media will only increase FOMO as one will keep wondering what's happening behind his/her eyes. Rather, it'll be wise to deviate the FOMO from social media to something productive."
"Why don't we fear the fact that we might miss something productive that others have already done?" asked Mr Yasin. "The time we waste on scrolling, only to know who said what on Facebook live and how that got viral, can rather be used to read an interesting book. We have to realise that while we are catching up to the social media trends, someone else is reading something important and with that, they are getting ahead of us."
Well, turning the FOMO of social media into doing something productive is a monumental task, thinks Rahadul Islam Sayeem. He wants to negate the unproductive distraction by productive distraction. "Since social media is the biggest distraction, what we need is to distract ourselves from the distraction itself," shared this chemistry graduate from the Government Tolaram College, Narayanganj. He has reasons to believe that learning new skills, mastering a hobby like playing the guitar or engaging with family members, when free, can give people the necessary distraction.
Rahadul also believes that leaving social media is totally impossible, especially in the time of a pandemic. But the usage can be checked. "Force yourself more into the real-life than the virtual one, turn off the push notification, instead of craving for what other people have (knowing from the social media), try making what you have, better," explained the self-motivated guy regarding how he manages FOMO. However, if nothing works, Rahadul suggests a digital break-- which he calls digital detoxification-- and consulting a psychologist.
"We can't have it all always, and we don't have to"-- just this one realisation can check fear of missing out to a significant extent. Not going for the symbol, but for the experience, should be the approach. And experience comes from productivity because experience is real, not virtual.
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