Fear of missing out

coined the term FOMO while writing for The Harbus. and popularized it in a 2004 op-ed titled "Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis' Two FOs" in The Harbus, the magazine of Harvard Business School, where he was then a student. The article also referred to another related condition, Fear of a Better Option (FOBO), and the role of these two fears in the school's social life. Currently the term has been used as a hashtag on social media and has been mentioned in hundreds of news articles, from online sources like Salon.com to print papers like The New York Times. and included the phrase in a 2000 paper about "short-term brands", where a motivation for trying these brands is "ambition to exhaust all possibilities and the fear of missing out on something". Herman also believes the concept has evolved to become more wide spread through mobile phone usage, texting, and social media and has helped flesh out the concept of the fear of missing out to the masses. Before the Internet, a related phenomenon, "keeping up with the Joneses", was widely experienced. FOMO generalized and intensified this experience because so much more of people's lives became publicly documented and easily accessed. == Symptoms ==

Psychological Fear of missing out has been associated with a deficit in psychological needs. Test subjects with lower levels of basic psychological satisfaction reported a higher level of FOMO. FOMO has also been linked to negative psychological effects in overall mood and general life satisfaction. In this study, around half of the respondents stated that they are overwhelmed by the amount of information needed to stay up-to-date, and that it is impossible to not miss out on something. The process of relative deprivation creates FOMO and dissatisfaction. It reduces psychological well-being. FOMO led to negative social and emotional experiences, such as boredom and loneliness. A 2013 study found that it negatively impacts mood and life satisfaction, Four in ten young people reported FOMO sometimes or often. Studies have found that experiencing fear of missing out has been linked to anxiety or depression. Behavioral The fear of missing out stems from a feeling of missing social connections or information. According to John M. Grohol, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Psych Central, FOMO may lead to a constant search for new connections with others, abandoning current connections to do so. The fear of missing out derived from digital connection has been positively correlated with bad technology habits especially in youth. These negative habits included increased screen time, checking social media during school, or texting while driving. Social media use in the presence of others can be referred to as phubbing, the habit of snubbing a physically present person in favour of a mobile phone. Multiple studies have also identified a negative correlation between the hours of sleep and the scale at which individuals experience fear of missing out. A lack of sleep in college students experiencing FOMO can be attributed to the number of social interactions that occur late at night on campuses. == Settings ==

Social media Fear of missing out has a positive correlation with higher levels of social media usage. Self-esteem plays a key role in the levels a person feels when experiencing the fear of missing out, as their self worth is influenced by people they observe on social media. and is directly related to the individual looking at social media sites for a short period of time. This anxiety is caused by a loss of feeling of belonging through the concept of social exclusion. FOMO-sufferers may increasingly seek access to others' social lives, and consume an escalating amount of real-time information. A survey in 2012 indicated that 83% of respondents said that there is information overload in regards that there is too much to watch and read. Constant information that is available to people through social media causes the fear of missing out as people feel worse about themselves for not staying up to date with relevant information. Facebook, and Instagram. Video games People want to be a part of the in-group and feel like they belong, making them fear missing out on being part of the in-group. Investing Fear of missing out has an influential role in the investment market for cryptocurrencies. There is a fear of missing out on making big gains through stocks driving the market since the market was at a low point before. For example, there are differences between the fear of missing out on Burberry and Prada stock in which the Prada stock is seen as more valuable and people more likely fear to miss out on buying that particular stock. AT&T's "Don't be left behind" campaign used the fear of missing out to make people want to join their network and receive messages and emails at fast 4G rates, to not miss updates from friends. Duracell's Powermat "Stay in charge" campaign showcased four dead phones and advertised to the viewers that the owners of the phone were missing out on updates on the phones because they were not using Duracell's charging technology to power the phones. Heineken's "Sunrise" campaign aimed to encourage responsible drinking by portraying excessive drinking as a way to miss the best parts of a party, rather than claiming that excessive drinking is a risk to personal health. Other brands attempt to counter FOMO, such as Nescafé's "Wake up to life" campaign. Harnessing TV viewers' FOMO is also perceived to foster higher broadcast ratings. Real-time updates about status and major social events allow for a more engaging media consumption experience and faster dissemination of information. Real-time tweets about the Super Bowl are considered to be correlated with higher TV ratings due to their appeal to FOMO and the prevalence of social media usage. == Variants ==

Cultural FOMO, as a word and as a social phenomenon, has several cultural variants. Before Americans defined FOMO, however, Singaporeans had already named their own version, "kiasu". Taken from the Chinese dialect Hokkien, kiasu translates to a fear of losing out but also encompasses any sort of competitive, stingy or selfish behavior. Linguistic The term FOMO has also inspired offshoots such as FOBO, FOMOMO, MOMO, FOJI, BROMO, NEMO, SLOMO and JOMO. • FOBO – originally Fear Of a Better Option (singular), now often Fear Of Better Options (plural) – was coined by Patrick J. McGinnis in the same 2004 article that introduced FOMO. McGinnis describes FOBO as a byproduct of a hyper-busy, hyper-connected world in which everything seems possible, and, as a result, you are spoiled for choice. • FOMOMO stands for the Fear Of the Mystery Of Missing Out. FOMOMO refers to a more extreme case of FOMO that occurs when one's mobile device is unusable, resulting in angst caused by the inability to see what one is missing out on social media. Deprived of seeing friends' social media posts, one may automatically assume that those on your social media feed are having a better time than you. JOMO is a positive belief that cutting off all social media and digital devices can be blissful. • FOBIA stands for the Fear of Being Ignored Altogether and refers to the necessity of maintaining an online presence in order to feel validated as a human being. • FOBI stands for the "fear of being involved" and refers to one avoiding being involved in something. == See also ==