How Social Media Creates a Fear of Missing Out (And What To Do About It)

FOMO — or the fear of missing out — has become a pattern in today's world. We are constantly on our phones, glued to social media feeds and checking what other people are up to. The more updates we see, the more anxious we feel. We see people living this exciting life, achieving this new milestone, doing that exciting activity. We feel like we are missing out, that we are not living a good enough life, and we have a compulsion to keep up. So we keep up... buying, keeping up, and absorbing as much information and updates as we can. And this addresses our anxiety... or does it? Can you relate? Well, today's episode is just for you. :) In this episode of The Personal Excellence Podcast, I cover What is FOMO [0:29] Signs of FOMO [1:27] 4 reasons why FOMO exists [4:39] 5 strategies to tackle FOMO [15:06] Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, TuneIn, Pocket Casts, Podcast Addict, Overcast, Castbox, or subscribe to the RSS feed. The Personal Excellence PodcastHow Social Media Creates a Fear of Missing Out (And What To Do About It)Show Podcast Information Read the transcript for this episode here. If you find The Personal Excellence Podcast helpful, please take a minute to leave a nice rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to the podcast. Your rating makes a difference and will help spread the message of conscious living to more people out there. Thank you! :) Fear of Missing Out [Transcript] Welcome to The Personal Excellence Podcast. The show that's all about helping you be your best self and live your best life. Now, your host, Celestine Chua! Celestine Chua: Hey everybody, welcome to The Personal Excellence Podcast! This is Celestine Chua from PersonalExcellence.co. Today we're talking about the fear of missing out, otherwise known as FOMO. Have you heard the term FOMO before? I'm sure some of you have. But if you haven't, FOMO refers to the apprehension that one is not in the know, or one is out of touch with some event, experience, or interaction. This compels the person to constantly want to know what's going on, what's happening out there, and whether they're missing out on something. In today's world, FOMO exists on some level in many of our social media habits and online behavior — even if you don't realize it. This is why I want to discuss this topic today because I feel that FOMO has become such a prevalent issue. Some Signs You Have FOMO Some signs of having FOMO include Continually refreshing your social media newsfeed to see what's going on, what's the latest update, and the new things that people are discussing right now. Feeling the need to know what so-and-so people are doing. This can include the people in your social network. It can also include the people you don't know, such as celebrities or famous people. The constant feeling that you're not satisfied with your life, and because of that you keep looking outward at what others are doing. Feeling that perhaps you are not doing enough. So as opposed to enjoying your time right now with the people you are with and the life you have right now, you are constantly checking and seeing what others are up to, because you feel that otherwise, you may be missing out. Why FOMO is Unique to Our Era I feel that FOMO is a phenomenon that's unique to our digital era. FOMO as a term was coined in 2003 and it was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. That's just a few years ago. So why is FOMO unique to our era? Imagine in the past, way before the internet was invented. Say it's a Friday night and you just finished work. What do you do? Perhaps you would read a book. Perhaps you would do some simple activities. Maybe you like to knit so you knit. Maybe you watch a video of your favorite movie. Or you have a quiet conversation with a loved one. So you do that and you sleep. And you could be feeling pretty satisfied with your Friday night, doing something that you like.