FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out [Meaning & Solution]

What is the significance of FOMO syndrome (The Fear Of Missing Out)? What has it to do with social media? In the meantime, this term has also become common in our daily language. Here you will find an explanation, a test and a solution. Read along…

FOMO meaning… What is FOMO?

FOMO is the compulsion to experience everything. Literally translated: the fear of missing out. A typical example of this is that you stay at home on a Saturday night and see all kinds of social media messages from friends who are partying.

FOMO makes you feel restless and unhappy because it leads you to look outside yourself for happiness. You forget to be grateful for ‘what is’ because you hunt for more.

FOMO is an illusion

The fear of missing out – inside or outside of you – is perhaps the greatest illusion there is.

And the illusion of FOMO is even more common. It is not only an illusion that you are missing something, that it is outside of you and that you need more of it, it is also an illusion that you will one day arrive where you want to be. That just won’t happen! Then you miss something again and then something and again …

The reason we’re so insecure is because we’re comparing our own behind-the-scenes to everyone else  ‘s highlights tape .
– Steve Furtick

FOMO test: can you answer ‘yes’ to the questions below?

Question 1: Do you experience Social Media addiction?
Do you regularly feel tempted by Facebook or another medium? Does it feel like you can’t take a second off your mobile? Do you keep checking apps and scrolling through Facebook?

Question 2: Do you have trouble choosing?
Do you feel it is very difficult to make decisions? Because you have to exclude one or more other choices because of your choice? You have to miss those choices … The result is often that you do not choose anything or try to grab everything, so that you cannot fully enjoy anything …

Question 3: Have you been feeling increasingly dissatisfied with your life lately?
If you regularly fear that you will miss something, you will experience less happiness than before. Has your sense of satisfaction gone down lately?

Question 4: Do you experience concentration problems?
Do you experience that it is difficult for you to focus on one thing and you are soon distracted. Are you actually reading a book but want to hear conversations around you, grab your mobile, Googling yourself or checking who attended a festival this weekend?

FOMO in marketing

Marketing communication texts gratefully respond to the feeling of FOMO. Think of slogans like ‘You want to be there too …’, ‘You don’t want to be the only one who isn’t there …’ or ‘You only belong with …’

The Joy Of Missing Out (JOMO)

How do you get out of that FOMO mindset? By doing instead of thinking. Don’t spend your time and energy overthinking a decision, but choose something and enjoy it.

Blogger Anil Dash came up with the positive counterpart of FOMO, called JOMO. The Joy Of Missing Out. This teaches us the following:

• JOMO teaches us to focus on the fine and positive effects of what we are doing now, in this moment . How nice is it to have a night of me-time on the couch instead of going out with friends? How necessary and important is that me-time to you?
• Take it easy. Analyze how often you use your phone on a daily basis and what kinds of things you use it for. Apps like QualityTime and BreakFree do that for you. Just by analyzing you will become more aware, so that you will automatically decrease.
• Keep your mobile out of sight more often and / or turn off the internet function (standard).
• Pay more attention to the activity in the here and now. For example with a board game, company of a good friend or these 84+ mindfulness exercises. Deactivate Facebook and be happy in a boat. That is luck. You need that.

The bottom line is that the life where you are now is infinitely more beautiful than the ‘life’ that takes place in your phone and in other places and times.

On your luck!