If there’s one emotional trigger that’s all over pop culture these days, it’s FOMO (or Fear of Missing Out). In a Millennial culture dominated by the process of stacking up personal experiences as much as possible, the event is everything — and missing out on it constitutes a crushing blow that necessitates emotional CPR.
This sentiment has taken hold from coast to coast. It’s why events ranging from South by Southwest to the latest iPhone release have a ridiculous amount of in-person interest. It’s why live streaming has gone from a novel idea to something that invades all corners of our life within a four-year period. It’s why we get so many marketing emails warning us that the clock is ticking on the next big thing. In short, it’s the fuel for the way our culture currently operates.
But FOMO is Dumb.
This phenomenon has invaded our society like a cancer. It’s brought the peer-pressured environment of high school into the mainstream, playing on our sense of belonging at the expense of what really should be important.
Much like the proliferation of selfies, FOMO gives us a mainstream excuse for carrying on childish behavior at an age when we should be much more mature. While selfies satiate our ever-growing narcissism, FOMO plays into our teenage desire to be “cool.”
This misguided emotional trap leads to predictably ugly results. We act irresponsibly, overspending both our time and our money to continually be present on the social scene. This means big business for organizers who can play off our addiction to routinely fill to capacity everything from an arena to a bar, solely off of the mystical social status that attendance at these events provides.
Of course, half of the people present for these events and activities don’t much care about them at all — they’re just on the scene so that the world knows they were there.
This is ridiculous.
It’s high time we take control of our own destiny. Our lives should be about more than where we’re visible at. It’s not like anyone is keeping score anyway — at least not in a way that really matters.
We should instead devote our attention to what we’re passionate about, and the people that mean the most to us. If we shift our gaze in this direction, we’ll attain necessary balance in our lives.
In fact, we’ll find that we’re not missing anything at all.