f.o.m.o.

f.o.m.o. (fear of missing out): anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere often aroused by posts seen on a social media website.

this might sound like a joke…but its an absolutely real thing! the acronym f.o.m.o. has recently been added to oxford dictionary that seems to be becoming very prevalent amongst us millennials.

how often do we log on to social media and start to envy where a friend or even a stranger is experiencing their life? for instance…those cute little geotags that snapchat has. a snap is just a regular snap until someone adds the geotag that says “greetings from GREECE”. then that average joe’s snap has just elevated from a 2 to a 200 because now they have let you know that they are overseas. no they aren’t at home watching Roseanne and eating pringles…they’re out seeing the world.

what about when your friends ask you to go out and you kindly declined. next thing you know they are blowing up your timeline with all these posts about how “lit” the party is without you. now you want to get up out of your printed pj pants, throw on your best and hit the club!

here’s another scenario…you and your friends are wanting to go out. i mean you have already decided that tonight is going to be epic and you are going to live it up! paint the town red! someone throws out a suggestion…what is the first thing you do? you ask: “does that venue have a website? is there a hashtag? let me see if i can search it on IG by the hashtag” why do we do this? because we want to go to the best possible party, and have a fear of wasting our time on a just “ok” party. so often times we have those nights where we will keep hopping in and out of the ubers looking for the next big party. we want to be those people who are having the time of our lives and letting all of our followers witness this amazing time through the screens of their smartphones.

this happens so much more often than we would like to admit. i can raise my hand and say that i fall victim to f.o.m.o. on occasion. i just like to have fun and need social interaction! lol i was definitely not born an introvert. 🙂

share your thoughts! have you ever f.o.m.o.’d?? comment below! stay blessed!