FOMO, or “Fear Of Missing Out”—yes, it's a real thing. And if you’re currently a college student, you might as well diagnose yourself already. It seems like all millennials such as myself are in the frontline battle against FOMO.
Consider those Friday nights you decided to stay home… 45 minutes into that Netflix documentary you’re watching, you choose to reach for your phone and click through your friend's Snapchat story—which could be composed of drunken videos from a frat party or possibly that concert you didn’t attend. Soon afterwards, you come to the realization that your life isn’t as exciting and you must be doing something wrong. And there you have it, folks, the FOMO has just kicked in.
1. Stay away from social media.
Let’s be realistic—after reading this article, you won’t delete your Instagram, Snapchat or your Twitter account. But in order to combat FOMO, you don’t have to completely delete these accounts; you just have to learn how to avoid them in certain situations. When you’re drowning in assignments, don’t look at your newsfeed to see what people are up to. Times like those are when FOMO will hit you the hardest. Whether you have to hide your phone in the opposite side of your house, just be strong and try to live without social media for longer than an hour. Do yourself a grand favor. If you know that you will be tempted to check social media, then delete the apps for the time being. Yes, delete the app, not the account—and if you want to take it to a whole other level, you can temporarily deactivate your account. This is a trick I always use around finals week, or anytime I just don’t want to be dwelling over what the world is doing.
2. Focus on your own life.
Stop comparing your life and situation to everyone else’s. You are you; you’re not a member of the Kardashian family who can easily take a day trip to St. Barts and escape all responsibilities (although one can daydream). Keep in mind that the way people make their lives to be through Instagram doesn’t reflect what happens behind the photographs. Those who portray these extravagant lives via social media are just as full of insecurities about their own life—the same insecurities you feel towards your life when you get FOMO. Consider your happiest moments. If you think about it, some of those moments were probably not captured on camera; they probably haven't even been posted to your Facebook wall. Focus on trying to make more of those moments happen without worrying about what everyone else is doing in his or her lives. At the day's end, your life and your own happiness isn’t something that should be placed in competition with others. And if you need a little more to help you realize that, I suggest you go listen to “Love Yourz” by J Cole. As the song goes, “There’s no such thing as a life that’s better than yours.” And if you can obtain that mentality, I promise that the fear of missing out will no longer be a fear.
3. Fight FOMO with FOMO.
OK, so this last tip on “no longer having FOMO” is a bit contradicting. If all else fails, why not just fight FOMO with FOMO. What I mean by this is to make a list of things you want to do or places you want to go. Whether it's once a month on your free time, go and do them—and hey, post a selfie while you’re at it. While you’re out doing these things, you won’t be experiencing the fear of missing out since you are part of that group of individuals who are out having fun or experiencing new ventures. This is a safe bet in eliminating your FOMO, but it might only do so for the short term.
Whether or not FOMO is curable, you are the only one in total control of catching it. Therefore, avoid this plague at all costs.
