I recently learned about yet another social dilemma, oh-so-trendily shortened to an acronym the way everything seems to be these days. For some reason, no one can use full words anymore, but that's another topic for another day. For now, we'll stick with the subject at hand, which would be "Fear of Missing Out," or FOMO. It's a strange phenomenon, really, if you think about it. Yet it's not a new one. It's all about repackaging, people.
Upon closer inspection, one can easily see that FOMO is really just another strain of what we all experienced throughout our entire childhood...now, though, we're grown-ups with better toys and more money, so we have to make it sound a little more official. Still, though, it is a plain and simple fear of being the last one picked, the only one not invited, the lonely soul left out in the cold while everyone else is having all the fun. The biggest difference now is that we didn't have social media when we were younger.
Thanks to Facebook and Twitter, we are now more aware of what we perceive we are missing out on. Hence the exponential rise of FOMO. It's no wonder there is such a HUGE section in the book store dedicated to finding the secret to happiness. We're too busy worrying about what we're missing out on to be happy with what we have.
And guess what?
We miss out.
We cause ourselves to miss out.
We have a gift to savor in every day, but we're so consumed with worry over what might be going on without us that we can't appreciate these moments that we have; and they slip through our fingers unnoticed, un-savored.
Don't miss out.
Take a look at what you do have and realize what other people are missing out on.
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