Facebook. Twitter. Flickr. Tumblr. The choices for what to click on next abound. Yet while social networking sites have swelled over the past decade, opening the door to new avenues of communication every day, they can also spark anxieties among users flooded with new information seemingly every second.
Enter FOMO, or the Fear Of Missing Out.
FOMO is a recently coined term commonly used to describe the insecurity one feels having learned of other events one could be partaking in but isn't.
"[FOMO] is the feeling that someone, somewhere, is having a better time, with more awesome people, the result of which is that they win, and you lose," Flickr co−founder Caterina Fake told the Daily in an email.
Fake, who also co−founded the new social media platform Hunch.com, wrote a widely circulated blog post earlier this month called "FOMO and Social Media," where she asserted that while social anxiety is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a new phenomenon, it has reached a peak in visibility as a result of our constant connectedness.
"Social media has made us even more aware of the things we are missing out on," Fake said in her blog post.
Now more than ever, it seems, individuals are intent on sharing what they're doing while they're doing it — live−Tweeting their adventures, posting pictures to Facebook as soon as they're taken, "checking in" on GPS−based social networking site FourSquare every time they walk into a club. The list goes on. The constant barrage of other people's goings−on inevitably causes observers insecurity about the way they are spending their time, precisely the feeling FOMO seeks to describe.
"It's something that's existed for a while, but I don't think there was a face or name to it," pop culture and social media writer Annie Stamell told the Daily. Stamell last month wrote an article about FOMO for the Huffington Post, giving examples of the feeling in people's everyday lives.
From "stacking" people on Facebook to checking your smartphone every five minutes to crashing a party you are not invited to, FOMO is everywhere, she said.
"We have such a self−awareness about [FOMO] with our social media. You can go on Twitter and say ‘omg fomo,' and everyone gets it," Stamell said. "The article I wrote for the Huffington Post was sort of a joke, but at the same time it was legitimate, a symptom of the current social media craze and the accessibility we have to each others' lives."
Fake and Stamell's pieces came to the forefront after an onslaught of live−blogging and coverage from the 10−day South By South West Music and Media Conference in Austin, Texas, earlier this month, where people were scrambling to discover the hottest new bands, see the coolest new movies and drink the best beer with fellow partygoers. While attendees publicly worried on Twitter and Facebook if they were at the right parties, those at home expressed their FOMO about not being able to be at the festival.
"FOMO is a huge motivating factor," Stamell said. "I have friends who go out as frequently as they do because of FOMO. Even if you know that every night could be the same thing, it's motivating because people are going to put pictures on Facebook the next day, they're going to be talking about it the next day. It's silly and a little bit crazy, but it's something that exists."
Stamell said that her piece for the Huffington Post was the first time the term was used in a mainstream news source, but the first appearance of FOMO in mass media predates her post by several years. FOMO was first included in Urban Dictionary.com on 2006 and BusinessWeek called it a new "epidemic" affecting Harvard Business School in 2007.
The term, or malady, has resonated with international audiences as well and has been used as a media tool worldwide. In an Australian ad campaign for online arts and entertainment guide Citysearch.com.au, the fictional Dr. Dale Chandapaul, known as the "foremost authority on FOMO," recommends visiting the website to help decide how to spend one's time most wisely.
FOMO has since been seen in a T−Mobile ad campaign, used as the name of a champagne lounge in Toronto for those who fear spending a night alone and band together, and is a common hashtag on Twitter.
Stamell said the frequent use of the term on Twitter has helped it become ubiquitous, yet the platform itself has enhanced the significance behind the term.
Sophomore Sofia Poma said that she has occasionally seen this term online. Though not the epidemic BusinessWeek termed it, Poma agreed that FOMO characterized a common sentiment among people her age.
"I do not think anyone would go and say they suffer of FOMO, but I definitely think the term explains some college students' behavior," she said. "Social media is the way we find out about everything in college — from intellectual lectures to frat parties to charity events."
Yet as the growth of online networks has served to enhance the connectedness on the Internet between friends, family and even strangers, it might come at the cost of real−life relationships.
"There's the danger of blurring the lines between real relationships and online relationships and the connections we build with people," Stamell said. "I think it's harder now because everyone's on Facebook, and more and more on Twitter. … FOMO is unavoidable. It comes down to an individual looking at their social life, as well as their social life online, to say, "It's OK. I'm doing something else."
Although the amount of information her generation receives through social media can be overwhelming, Poma said, the extent of the emotional and psychological effect depends on the individual.
"We still have the ability to judge how much of our time we devote to social media and how much influence it has on our decisions," Poma said. "I don't agree that FOMO can simply take over our lives."
Stamell said that while most people like to think of themselves as too confident to fall victim to FOMO, whenever she introduces the term to a new person, they know exactly what she's talking about and can share a FOMO experience of their own.
"As cheesy as it sounds, we need to live in the moment more," Stamell said. "Look at yourself and get over it. It's just a good self−philosophy."
Hunch, Fake's newest venture, aims to personalize the Internet to its users' specific interests, hoping to encourage them to find things to do that will make them feel more fulfilled. And as social media outlets continue to flourish, she emphasized that they should serve as a means — not an end — to socializing.
"The ideal use of technology is as a tool in your life, not for it to become your life!" Stamell said.
