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FOMO: FEAR OF MISSING OUT Is keeping up with hundreds—even thousands—of friends online making you crazy?
CRYSTAL MAJOR WILL NEVER forget the time she logged on to Facebook and found a photograph of her closest girlfriends having dinner together. They were out celebrating a birthday at a swanky, downtown Toronto club, and they appeared to be having a blast. “What a great night!� read one comment beneath the flawless photo. “So much fun!� There was just one problem: Major hadn’t been invited to the party. “I felt left out and wondered why they thought it would be more fun [without me],� says Major, 29, of the grim realization. Though the Toronto-based writer never confronted her friends about it (“I didn’t want to sound like a baby�), it’s something that has clearly stuck with her—that feeling of inadequacy, of missing out. She’s not alone. In an age dominated by social media sites
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such as Facebook and Twitter, we’re plugged in like never before. We’re consuming the latest news, gossip and fashion trends, connecting with friends old and new, networking like mad. It’s all so easy and welcoming. And yet, it’s leaving us feeling jealous, depressed, alone and anxious, thanks to a self-imposed need to be connected 24-7. Welcome to the world of FOMO: Fear Of Missing Out. (Didn’t you know?) It’s the whole “keeping up with the Joneses� phenomenon, only on a much larger scale, with everyone feeling as though we’ll miss some earth-shattering news, or a coveted party invite, if we dare to log off. Of course, lots of people have a healthy attitude toward technology: They use it sparingly and as a means to connect with friends and family. But just as many have become obsessed, creeping through
Facebook (checking out photos of the ex and analyzing his new girlfriend, for example), keeping tabs on hundreds—and sometimes even thousands—of their nearest and dearest. They’ll spend hours each day on Twitter alone—time that could be better spent working out, reading a novel or meeting up with a friend for face-to-face interaction. And, worse yet, they’ll interrupt a perfectly good real-life moment so that they can share it with the masses. A recent study published in the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking found that women who base their self-esteem on appearances tend to share more photos online. As study co-author Michael Stefanone puts it, “It is disappointing to me that in the year 2011 so many young women continue to assert their self-worth via their physical appearance—in this case, by posting photos of > *Names have been changed
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BY SHAWNA COHEN