The formation and maintenance of social bonds are extremely important for human’s well-being, as a matter of fact, we spend a lot of time working on this as individuals.
With the arrival of technology and mainly smartphones and the social media sites people have bumped into excellent platforms where information about others is available, and at this point is where we can have as a result two different outcomes; on one hand this can be positive as a way to re-connect with old friends, classmates, to organize events, meetings or parties, to share information, etc. however, on the other hand, the constant comparison of our lives to other peoples’ lives can lead us to experience negative feelings like envy, resentment, jealously and therefore to feel ourselves meaningless or worthless.
These feelings drive us often to a harmful desire of checking compulsively our friends’ posts, trying to be connected, trying to avoid the sensation of missing out but, at the same time, feeling more and more depressed.
FOMO can be described as a need of being constantly connected or aware of what family or friends are doing, which doesn’t allow us to enjoy the present time or our own lives, pushing us into a dangerous relationship with technological devices, and more importantly, with ourselves.
So…Watch out! You might be suffering from FOMO without even knowing it. It is so easy to fall into that trap.