A January 2016 Mail Online article by Unity Blott explained that one of the so-called afflictions caused by social media was FOMO, which stood for the fear of missing out. FOMO began to be incorporated into the vocabulary of netizens sometime in 2011. Blott described it as the “acute and often unjustified belief that everyone is having more fun than you, and that you’re somehow being left out of all the fun.”
FOMO, in other words, was a bad case of digital life envy. What’s ironic is that most FOMO sufferers do not know if the people they admire are authentic. After all, it’s easy to pose in front of a car and claim it’s yours. It’s also easy to post pictures of food that you’ve never eaten and just write a caption to make it seem that you have it everyday.
However, it seems that FOMO may be losing traction. In its place is JOMO or the joy of missing out.
In “JOMO is the new FOMO — and it’s perfect for preventing burnout” — an article published on work-oriented website Ladders ? writer Meredith Lepore pointed out that people have ” started to get tired of constantly being tuned in and knowing about every single thing everyone was doing ever.”
Meanwhile, in “JOMO is the new FOMO and it’s about damn time” — an article published on the website Bolde — Rose Nolan noted that people are now learning to let go of the urge to “keep up with the Joneses.”
That said, we should take a break from social media when we can. The constant assault on the senses can be mentally exhausting. We may think that scrolling through other people’s seemingly perfect Facebook feeds and Instagram posts is a harmless way to pass the time. However, constant exposure to these well-curated world may just mess with our heads.
