If you don't know what the term F.O.M.O is, it is the acronym for the "fear of missing out". Many people, especially college students, use this term very often. Because of our generation's obsession with social media, and everyone posting pictures all the time of cool things they are doing, many people see each other's Instagrams or Snapchats of some fun activity and develop "FOMO".

I guess this can be good in some ways because it inspires people to be more social, but it can also be bad because people are socializing for the wrong reasons. People with FOMO can often fall into the trap of socializing because they want people to think they are social and want the image of doing something, instead of actually wanting to do that thing.

The amount of times my freshman year of college that I would go to a party even if I didn't want to that night, simply because I "didn't want to miss out" on anything, makes me question the impact that social media can have on myself and my peer's lives.

I was told by many adults that college would be the best years of my life, especially socially. So when I got to college, I felt like I had to go every single social event and try to meet as many people as possible, otherwise, I would not have a good social life. Because of this, I was staying up late hours trying to meet people at different places and making sure to build social media connections with everyone I met.

And if I didn't go to a party, a football game, or even just getting a quick dinner with a group of people, then I would develop "FOMO". I was afraid that if I missed one thing, no one would want to be friends with me. I genuinely thought that other people paid attention to where I was and where I was not, so I exhausted myself just because I didn't want to miss out on a single aspect of the social scene. This was draining mentally and physically, so I decided to reevaluate my priorities.

When I look back on this mindset of my FOMO, I don't have any regrets, because I feel like I met a lot of my amazing friends through attending parties and other social events. But I DO wish that I cared less about what people thought.

I feel like the main source of FOMO for people my age is the fear that people won't think you are "cool" and will judge you if you don't go to a party one night. People my age think that if your Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, etc. isn't flooded with pictures of many friends doing fun things together, then people won't want to hang out with you. But this is not true.

Your image on social media does not define who you are or how "cool" you are as a person. You do not have to go to every single social event just because you want a picture from it, or if you feel you are "missing out" if you don't go. I think our generation needs to focus more on doing things that will make ourselves happy, instead of doing things we feel we "have" to do to fit in. You are not missing out if you don't go everywhere possible, and no one will like you any less if you take time to focus on yourself and doing what makes you happy.