Are you obsessed with social media to the point of feeling that you’re missing out on something? Well, the condition is reportedly a new one in psychological circles called FOMO (the fear of missing out). Just like the newly declared psychological condition called selfitis or the obsession with selfies, FOMO is that unpleasant feeling of remaining a mute spectator on the outside looking in.
FOMO is widely believed to be related to social media when you feel deprived after seeing other people’s feeds on Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook that they could be having a better time and more social interaction than you. This makes you feel left out.
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FOMO may make you feel that you are an unpopular person especially when you aren’t invited to a social event regardless of it being held at work, among co-workers or friends and family, it makes you reflect in a depressing way on your own failures and makes you feel as if you have done something wrong.
It is not a condition that you may have experienced before because why should you actually care if others are having a good time and though you may not be invited to one event; there are others where your presence is welcome.
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FOMO isn’t the observation of someone who randomly expressed the condition. It was studied and coined by psychologists where a FOMO scale was created by psychologist Andrew Przybylski of Essex University way back in 2013. The 10 item scale estimated the extent of FOMO in the population where the condition has gained prominence in social psychology
The FOMO scales measured prevailing conditions where you may not feel much if your best friend went out for diner with someone else, but if she had a birthday party and invited others and you only get to know about it on social media, then you may experience a level of FOMO.
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FOMO can also be applied in circumstances where you may not understand a joke while others do where the anxiety has its source in your childhood. When you were at childhood you may have been made to feel left out. Psychologists say that FOMO can torment you with the trauma of an event long after the event has passed especially if you keep thinking why you were left out or why are you an outcast.
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Here are the ten conditions developed for the FOMO scale with each being numbered from 1 being indicative of (items not at all true of me) to 5 (items extremely true of me). You can check your score.
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In a sample test of 2,000 adults between 22 to 65 years of age, the average score was 2 which indicate FOMO wasn’t much of a concern across a wide spectrum of age groups however there were higher scores of FOMO observed in young adults where men showed higher scores than women which was quite a surprise. If you scored between 1 and 3 on the scale, you were in the expected range. Here is a better version of the FOMO quiz to help you understand it better
A second study showed how the extent of FOMO was influenced by Facebook more than any other factor.
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What was most appalling for the psychologists studying the extent of FOMO on people were the fact that those with high scores of FOMO indicating that the condition affected them considerably were also addicted to social media to the point of neglecting their health, school grades and safety. Such people were liable to drive and engage in social media.
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The Przybylski studies found that those most likely to be afflicted with FOMO were also those who possessed a constant need to keep checking their social media accounts as well as the activity of friends and people in their social media circle.
It would be easy for them to turn off their outlets in order to create a psychological defense to protect themselves from having to face such worrying outcomes of being left out but they chose not to WHY?
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Further studies on FOMO found that Extraversion is on such factor that could logically explain the constant use of social media especially when it is outgoing people who are prone to using platforms like Facebook. Neuroticism also increased a person’s tendency to keep checking social media accounts every minute in a hope to receive some feedback and reassurance from others.
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For many, communicating through a screen is easier than face to face communications. Another factor is attachment where social media allows them to avoid face to face communication and confrontation in order to keep people at a distance in spite of being present in daily life. The study predicted that those anxious about relationships and had a fear of exclusion suffered FOMO the most.
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The researchers concluded that social media preys upon people’s perceived weakness and their preoccupations. Such individuals who had high measures of FOMO were actually being given a means to record how they were being ignored by friends and family online. Researchers suggest that if you do feel resentful of others having a better time than you on Facebook, it would be advisable to shut it off once in awhile or take a sabbatical from Facebook.
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Instead, spend time with genuine close friends or family who will give you a better appreciation of yourself and make you feel worthwhile. Instead of focusing on those who regard you as existing only on social media, it would be wiser to go out with those who love and care for you.
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