Overview

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the feeling of apprehension that one is either not in the know about or missing out on information, events, experiences, or life decisions that could make one's life better. FOMO is also associated with a fear of regret, which may lead to concerns that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, a memorable event, profitable investment, or the comfort of loved ones.

It is characterized by a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing, and can be described as the fear that deciding not to participate is the wrong choice. FOMO could result from not knowing about a conversation, missing a TV show, not attending a wedding or party, or hearing that others have discovered a new restaurant. In recent years, FOMO has been attributed to a number of negative psychological and behavioral symptoms.

FOMO has increased in recent times due to advancements in technology. Social networking sites create many opportunities for FOMO. While it provides opportunities for social engagement, it offers a view into an endless stream of activities in which a person is not involved. Further, a common tendency is to post about positive experiences (such as a great restaurant) rather than negative ones (such as a bad first date). Psychological dependence on social media can lead to FOMO or even pathological Internet use. FOMO is also present in video games, investing, and business marketing.

The increasing popularity of the phrase has led to related linguistic and cultural variants. FOMO is associated with worsening depression and anxiety, and a lowered quality of life.

FOMO can also affect businesses. Hype and trends can lead business leaders to invest based on perceptions of what others are doing, rather than their own business strategy. This is also the idea of the bandwagon effect, where one individual may see another person or people do something and they begin to think it must be important because everyone is doing it. They might not even understand the meaning behind it, and they may not totally agree with it. Nevertheless, they are still going to participate because they do not want to be left out.

History

Patrick J. McGinnis coined the term FOMO 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.

Earlier forms

The phrase "fear of missing out" is a common English phrase, especially in the form "fear of missing out on (something)". The term "fear of missing out" (but not the term FOMO) was used earlier in the academic business literature by marketing strategist Dan Herman, who used it in presentations in the late 1990s, 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 widespread 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 accessible.

Behavioral

The fear of missing out stems from a feeling of missing social connections or information. This absent feeling is then followed by a need or drive to interact socially to boost connections. The fear of missing out not only leads to negative psychological effects but also has been shown to increase negative behavioral patterns. In aims of maintaining social connections, negative habits are formed or heightened. A 2019 University of Glasgow study surveyed 467 adolescents and found that the respondents felt societal pressure to always be available. 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.

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. People do not want to feel like they are missing out of being part of the belonging group with respect to video games, which causes a video game addiction. When people align their social identities with the video game they are playing, they fear that not playing enough will outcast them from the group they are playing with, leading to the fear of missing out on being a dedicated member of the community.

Within video games, FOMO is also used to describe the similar anxiety around missing the ability to obtain in-game items or complete activities that are only available for a limited time, such as those in battle passes. This is particularly common for multiplayer video games, where such items are cosmetic in nature but reflect a player's skill to other players in the game and can become a sign of social standing within the game's community; wherein failure to acquire a limited cosmetic item may lead to social outcasting.