There’s nothing worse in college than missing out on a big event that “everyone else” seems to be going to.
Your Instagram feed and Snapchat stories are endless streams of people videoing the venue, the crowd dancing and everyone’s outfit of the night.
You have a minor panic attack caused by social anxiety. Why did you stupidly decide to study rather than go out on a Friday night?
You vow to yourself to go out more, be more extroverted and have as good of a time as “everyone else” in college is.
This leads to non-stop partying, binge drinking and late nights. You feel as if it’s a bit too much, but you don’t want to feel as lonely as you did that one time you decided to stay in.
Congratulations! You’ve developed FOMO.
FOMO– Fear Of Missing Out has become a major form of anxiety in the 21st century. With the development of technology, all the social media apps on our phones allow us to see what all our friends and classmates are doing 24/7.
The unhealthy attachment that has formed between humans and their phones only encourages this problem. People are constantly checking multiple media outlets to see what fun things their peers are doing.
A 2013 survey actually states that 56 percent of social media users are “afraid of missing out on events, news and important status updates if they are away from social networks.”
That means over half of people with a Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat or Instagram are checking to see who is with who, who went where and who is wearing what.
This mentality of “keeping up with the Joneses” is unhealthy. If you see a photo of your friends on Instagram, you should like it and scroll on. But with FOMO, that same photo depicts that your friends went out without you and it looks like they’re having the time of their life, and that causes you stress.
What also intensifies FOMO is the fact that social media users tend to over emphasize how “amazing,” “awesome” or “crazy” their nights are. Most likely, they did have a good time; but with a clever caption and a few appropriate emojis, followers may think they missed out on a night too epic to repeat.
The solution to this problem is to see past the perfectly edited photos, captions and statuses people post– especially on nights where you stay in, do work and watch Netflix.
On days when you’re doing nothing and it seems like everyone else in the world is out at a party, running a marathon or helping end world hunger, remember that it’s impossible to be doing something active, philanthropic or exciting all 24 hours of the day. People sleep. People don’t go out seven days a week (hopefully, for their liver’s sake). People may even be watching Netflix in their rooms just like you.
Don’t allow social media to fuel insecurity. There’s enough reason in the world to feel stressed. FOMO should not allow yourself to feel inadequate for wanting a little alone time.
While fear itself can push you to step out of your comfort zone, Fear Of Missing Out should not force you to dress up and go Uptown if you don’t want to. The next time you’re feeling depressed or anxious about not going out, just turn your phone off and enjoy what you’re doing now rather than hating yourself for what you’re not doing.
