Do You Experience FOMO? (Fear of Missing Out)

FOMO-Fear of Missing Out

By Dr. David Greenfield, The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction

 

The fear of missing out (FOMO) as it implies is that we are so connected or “plugged in” to our digital devices that we actually experience fear or anxiety when we lose that electronic tether to the our Internet world. Whether that connection occurs via our smartphone, Ipad, laptop, or some other Internet–enabled digital device the result is essentially the same. We experience a withdrawal-like feeling when we either loose access or are afraid we might lose access. The whole premise of FOMO is that there is something going on in cyberspace that is better than what we are doing right now.  We might feel we will miss something important, or that we might see, via face book, twitter, or other social media, that people are living a better, more exciting life than we are living and we are somehow “missing out”.

We can be actively engaged in our daily life and enjoying ourselves but still feel an almost compulsive need to check our Smartphone, email, texts, tweets, or face book to see if there is something we […]

By |August 13th, 2013|Dr. Dave's Blog, FOMO, Internet Addiction, Personal, Stress, Unplug, V-A|Comments Off on Do You Experience FOMO? (Fear of Missing Out)