2024-01-12 04:21:00
In a digital world, FOMO arouses anxiety when comparing our lives with what others show on networks (Illustrative Image Infobae)
In a quick scroll through social networks you can see various photos of friends enjoying the sea, a bar in Europe, at a mega party or doing extreme sports. Being outside of those situations of “happiness” can produce an aftertaste of bitterness and a thought: “They are having fun without me, I am ‘missing out’.”
This fear is called FOMO. The acronym FOMO comes from the English expression Fear of Missing Out. This fear of “being left out” can be related to social outings or events, job opportunities, relationships, or even life issues in general.
For Cynthia Zaiatz, (MN 60105), head of Psychology at the Caseros Model Sanatorium, “It is something that I see a lot in my patients. The fear of not uploading a photo or not showing where they are. There is a lot of travel on the topic. The economic figure is always around, such as a yacht, a photo of a ticket, among others. The person who looks at that begins to rethink her life and what he is doing with her unlike that other one,” he reflected to Infobae in a recent note.
The graduate in Psychology Juan Carlos Picasso, specialist in family psychology and preventive medicine, director of the Life Center Comprehensive Wellness Center, explained to Infobae: “JOMO is the freedom of being able to enjoy what we do at every moment without being aware of what what others do and which in turn responds to another phenomenon, FOMO, which is the fear of missing out on something, of being left out of the loop, of not being more pleasant.”
Studies link the impact of social networks on people’s well-being, causing self-esteem problems, depressive states and loneliness (Freepik)
For his part, Marcelo R. Ceberio, psychologist, master in Family Therapy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and master in Psychoimmunoendocrinology from the Favaloro University, explained to Infobae: “The conflict occurs because the person who observes the scene of the friend or the group of friends carrying out an activity, etc., and feel that they should have been there and were not, or worse, they fantasize that they were excluded and that they were not invited, or ‘what am I doing here in my room, looking at my cell phone’ or ‘studying’ or ‘playing with my cat’, while the others are having fun having a beer dancing and laughing as a group. This disorder is suffered by almost two-thirds of all social media users in the world and is an addiction to remaining aware of and dependent on the actions of others.
But new research now suggests that it is possible to enjoy “missing out.” For better mental health this year, experts recommend reframing those feelings of FOMO and instead try switching to JOMO: the joy of missing out. What does it mean? It is also an acronym: Joy Of Missing Out, which means “the joy of missing things”, and invites you to live different experiences without thinking about the number of likes you will get or if you really want to share them on the networks.
“FOMO existed before social media, but it just wasn’t as prominent a part of our experience,” said Chris Barry, a psychology professor at Washington State University. With the arrival of social networks, it was possible to see the events of everyone’s life and thus, experts say, the possibilities of comparing oneself with others all the time and perhaps feeling emotions that are not pleasant increased.
FOMO is a social anxiety related to the fear of missing out on an important event and being left behind, compared to what friends or family are experiencing or sharing. It especially affects young people (Illustrative Image Infobae)
“It is very toxic to live off networks and appearances. There is a reality, people want to belong, but it is important that when wanting to be part they do not forget what is good for each person,” Zaiatz emphasized.
Las research show that higher levels of FOMO are associated with lower self-esteem, insomnia, lower life satisfaction, and more loneliness.
According to another study, frequent app notifications mean switching tasks repeatedly, which affects performance. “This affects the attention capacity; “disrupts work and general productivity,” the study highlighted.
According to Ceberio, “FOMO produces high levels of anxiety, with the consequent stress and tension generated by trying to be in several places at the same time and not miss anything. Many times this attachment to the cell phone generates addiction, by constantly being aware of the images and the close circle, which produces symptoms of headache, palpitations, sometimes sweating, as part of the anxiety disorder. Symptoms of insomnia, restlessness, hypervigilant alertness and mental rumination also appear, as a way of thinking and rethinking the actions of others. In addition, feelings of loneliness and low self-esteem appear in the projection that is exerted on the environment when feeling excluded.”
It also affects diet. “Feelings of envy and social exclusion are related to bad eating habits. Furthermore, FOMO, by promoting high use of social media, leads to a sedentary lifestyle that influences the obesity epidemic in young adults,” the research reported.
Excessive cultivation of social networks not only generates FOMO, but also influences diet and lifestyle, which is more sedentary (Gettyimages)
On October 4, 2021, for several hours, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp stopped working. Attentive to this, scientists decided to investigate how this event impacted users. In the two days after the blackout, Tali Gazit, an associate professor of information sciences at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and his graduate student Tal Eitan recruited 571 adults to respond to a questionnaire assessing their feelings about the experience.
Initially, the researchers expected to uncover feelings of stress and FOMO, which in fact they found in abundance. But unexpectedly, in the optional open-ended questions, many people wrote about the relief and joy they felt at not being connected to social media and what was happening to others, the study reported. study of 2023.
“A lot of people really had fun and found themselves talking to their partners, meeting their friends and doing things, cooking, playing sports,” Gazit said.
Research shows that higher levels of FOMO are associated with self-esteem problems, insomnia, and lower life satisfaction (Illustrative image Infobae)
Social connection is healthy and social media, despite its many flaws and weaknesses, provides a means to relate. JOMO is not about completely avoiding those connections or isolating yourself from others, Barry said. Instead, he proposes intentionally taking periods of disconnection to recharge. Recommendations:
– Make regular plans to disconnect. Gazit found that people who intentionally stayed away from social media had higher psychological well-being compared to those who did not do so on their own, for example when asked to put away their phone in class.
– Use protective strategies: for example, turning off notifications, setting limits on certain applications or turning off the device at night, Barry recommended.
– Practice mindfulness or full attention: “The only thing this therapy does is exercise self-awareness and leave aside all the things that don’t add up. And in this way, it will be possible to increasingly banish the idea that if I don’t go to the fashionable place, I don’t have the photo to upload, I’m not going to be left out of anything,” Zaiatz explained.
To switch to JOMO, it is important to recover and value the experience of spending time chatting or playing in person with our loved ones (Illustrative image Infobae)
Mindfulness is a therapy where the person intentionally focuses on the current moment, in an active way, trying not to judge or value what they feel or perceive.
– Use social networks in moderation: cultivating JOMO does not mean a total disconnection from the lives of others, but rather being more aware of how social networks are used and “think about the emotions you are experiencing when viewing their content and consider what it is beneficial or not,” Barry said.
“Most of the time we are very busy with the lives of others,” Gazit said, proposing making a conscious effort to set aside time to “take care of one’s own existence.”
– Generate greater contact with the real world and less contact with the virtual world. Carry out group activities, without resorting to virtuality.
– Put yourself first. Cebeiro explained: “It is important to understand that you cannot be in everything. Value yourself, do exercises to strengthen self-esteem. Try to collect intrusive thoughts and destroy them. Think about the present and not divert attention to the future or what others are going to do.”
Mindfulness is a therapy where the person intentionally focuses on the present moment, in an active way, trying not to judge or value what they feel or perceive (Illustrative image Infobae)
– Arrange activities with friends: it is important to recover and value the experience of spending time chatting or playing in person. In this way, it will be possible to observe that live relationships have a different rhythm than the speed of everything that happens on the networks.
– Remember that everyone misses something: the world is too wide, rich and varied for one person to experience it all in their life. “I always tell people that they have to get over this thing of feeling like their life is boring because of one person’s post. You have to go to a place because you really want to go, not because it is trendy on social networks; I want to buy something because I love it, not because everyone on their Instagram uses it. The important thing is not to be involved in a world of lies,” Zaiatz concluded.
– Identifying priorities, being selective with social events and learning to say “no” are other ways to avoid FOMO syndrome and live a more full and conscious life.
To combat FOMO it is important to see friends in a real way, not just virtual (Illustrative image Infobae)
According to Picasso: “Adequate mental health is expressed in people who have developed the ability to delay or renounce gratification when it affects their health. Self-control and self-control are tools that protect the health of the mind and body given the unity and close relationship that exists between the two.
And he added: “How to have more JOMO in our lives? Although there is no formula to have more JOMO, I could say that life’s transcendent decisions are made by conviction and very rarely have consensus. Convictions occur in people who understand who they are, value what they are and have the ability to be part of a group without giving up their identity, values and convictions. This will allow you to enjoy every moment of what you do without having to worry about others.”
Appreciating and savoring the joy of living in the present, whether with a loved one or alone, without thinking about what others may be doing is, ultimately, living in freedom.
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