FOMO - from English: "fear of missing out" means roughly the same as a terrible fear of missing important information or an event. In the era of constant access to the Internet and social media, it is an increasingly common phenomenon among users of mobile devices. Check if you have FOMO syndrome
FOMO affects especially young people who do not remember their life "before the Internet era". This phenomenon is therefore the result of a civilization leap in recent years. We observe them mainly due to the dynamic development of social media.
FOMO syndrome - symptoms
FOMO is the fear that we may miss something. It is also a fear of missing an important event that is important for the world, society and we do not participate in it.
A person suffering from FOMO cannot properly identify what they are missing and what the real cause of the fear is. After all, it is not associated with an immediate threat, but it is undoubtedly a negative feeling. It only discharges when the person with FOMO checks the notifications on the phone or sits down in front of the computer.
- Psychologists are closely watching this disorder, although it is worth noting that it is not a disease entity entered into either the American or European registry of psychological diseases. FOMO is manifested by a nervous glance at the smartphone, a feeling of discomfort and fear when we are not "up to date". - explains the psychologist Igor Rotberg.
People with FOMO syndrome don't just keep checking for anything that might have escaped their attention. They also feel the need to share the smallest event in their lives on social media - they post photos of food served in a new, fashionable pub, report on a Saturday party or a trip out of town.
The aim of these publications is the need to show off, and the excitement is accompanied by it - how many likes and comments my photo will get. This leads to such absurd situations, such as taking a picture of the accident in order to stay ahead of others with the publication of information about the incident on the web, instead of helping the injured people.
In the understanding of people from FOMO, knowledge about a topic becomes meaningful only when we show it on a social network, without it we cannotpresents sufficient value. In addition, constantly refreshing Facebook, checking e-mail, reading news and posting results from the desire to be noticed in the environment and make others envy.
The expert explains what the FOMO syndrome is
Source: Newseria
Where did FOMO come from?
The appearance of FOMO is the result of social changes related to the development of the Internet. First of all, widely available mobile phones and constant access to the network meant that 24 hours a day we can meet the need for contact with other people, socialization, and obtaining information.
We no longer have to limit ourselves to scheduled meetings, and messages can be sent at any time of the day or night. Technological advances made users even start racing against time. The speed of access to information and its amount caused that it began to become outdated just as quickly.
Hence this specific fear of finding out about something too late, when others have known about it for a long time (e.g. in the morning). The fear of "being backwards" meant that frequently reaching for a smartphone became a synonym of being up to date.
People with FOMO may be more frequent perpetrators of car accidents, because the need to constantly check notifications is very distracting and distracting.
There would be nothing wrong with that, if not for the fact of losing control over the amount of information received and practically losing control over the choice of what comes to us. The chaotic navigation in the world of social media has resulted in the loss of the hierarchy between what is important and what is unimportant. Hence the result - internal fear of missing something important and the pressure to reach information, photos or videos before others do it.
According to an expertIgor Rotberg, psychologistConscious selection of content is the key to success. It is worth learning that we do not have to watch all the news sites. More information does not necessarily mean better information. We do not have to respond to every notification on the smartphone. It's worth reading carefully, not just scanning the titles and headings.
Secondly, the emergence of FOMO is related to the natural search for ways to kill boredom. Igor Rotberg described this phenomenon in a very interesting way: "In the age of the Internet, a dynamically changing world and constant changes, the concept of boredom is almost non-existent. Getting used to such a large number of stimuli makes it very difficult to bear the fact that nothing happens for a moment. happening. "
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