If there’s one thing that this generation is likely to be renowned for, it will be our extreme paranoia over the fear of missing out. With every little aspect of our lives documented, and an addiction to the refresh button that reveals the lives of others, there’s always plenty to feel as though we are missing out on.
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Staying in on a Friday night is spent scrolling through everyone else’s crazy antics, and the joy of a night in, comfortable in your pj’s, is just another chance for you to wish you were doing something else. Without regular excitement to document on your Instagram, naturally you feel as though your life has something missing, making you want to get involved with as much as possible to share with your followers.
The widely expressed argument stands that we shouldn’t compare ourselves to others, and that the impact of social media is having a detrimental effect. We must focus on ourselves, and not the lives of others to be happy, but why does FOMO have to be such a bad thing? FOMO can have a positive effect on your life without you even realising, and here are just some of the ways it can do so:
Experiences are forced upon you
As a way of keeping your online identity in check, you’re likely to spend time searching for the most impressive experiences to get involved in. While the motive may be to please others, what you get as a result is a rich experience that you may not have participated in otherwise. Is it so bad that social media is creating a fear of not having a gallery of lifetime achievements? It may be for our followers, but we’re still winning as a result.
Wasted time is something we can no longer bear
FOMO means that we can no longer bear the thought of wasted opportunities. Given the chance we want to maximise every bit of time that we have, through fear of feeling as though we have missed out if we do not. Laziness has been eradicated, due to the fact that it’s not impressive, and we are doing a lot more as a result.
We try to have as many connections as possible
The more people we are in touch with, the less chance we have of missing out. Knowing more people means more opportunities, and our circles are getting wider and wider as a result. There’s nothing wrong with having plenty of people to associate with, and the reasoning behind it being fear of missing out shouldn’t make having lots of friends a bad thing.
Opportunities don’t pass us by
Ultimately FOMO means that we do everything we can not to miss out on things that we want to do, surely that must be a good thing? Too much focus is placed on why we are doing the things that we do, and the fact that we are getting so much from the experiences is overlooked. Being too scared of missing out on opportunities is giving us a much fuller life, and we are doing things we would never dream of doing if FOMO wasn’t as present in our generation.
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