How the Internet creates FOMO
With the advent of the Internet, the need to leave home to socialize has been reduced to a minimum, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, tactile communication is decreased since a modern person interacts with devices. They become an essential part of interpersonal communication. Teenagers do not divide their lives online and offline, as with the older generation, since they have not had a life without the Internet.
Nowadays, 60% of millennials have shared their experiences on social media, and 69% also say they worry about missing out on events if they do not check social media. Social media used for sharing personal experiences and thoughts is the original reason to feel fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is one of the signs of social anxiety in the form of fear of rejection. One of the basic human needs is to be associated with other people. The consequences of the inability to remain in a social connection can be psychological and physiological. If somebody is excluded from society, then the person has fear. To reduce this terror, the person checks social media to create the illusion of being in a 'crowd.' Significantly, a feeling of inferiority begins, depending on someone else's opinion; there is an illusion of control over media use.
Our pages on social networks are ways of self-identification and personality representation. Moreover, the pages become digital narratives that signify the user's interests. People compare their page with other ones with many similar features. For example, Instagram aims to keep up with or gain knowledge about what others are doing. Therefore, the interaction with pages results in a collective experience, blurring the public and private boundaries. It frequents self-identification problems in the digital space and, ultimately, the emergence of FOMO.
Although social networks personal life is filled with relevant opportunities to be in different places simultaneously, giving growth to freedom of choice. The diversity of content makes it harder to decide. The choice situation involves the refusal of alternatives to approve one solution. FOMO is associated with the fear of a mistaken choice and the impossibility of delaying this decision in the hope of finding a better one. This syndrome points to thoughts about virtual reality's imitative nature, where values and meanings differ. Communication is becoming more patterned in the form of likes and comments, contributing to FOMO. This type of communication leads to the disorientation of a person in the digital space without a typical emotional response.
Some people experience FOMO after realizing the desired experience, which they could have had if they had not missed it due to other activities. Regret is a feeling related to FOMO-initiated decisions. It is a feeling for things that one has not done (shame of omission) or, more commonly, for items that have been done (guilt of commission). Above all, regret results from past decisions. Bailey Parnell, in her speech, mentioned the FOMO as one of the stress factors in the media, accompanied by:
'highlight reel' - social media show only the best and most fascinating moments, which are not similar to our daily life and dull events. It is due to visual multimedia applications for enhancing and modifying a photo, such as Instagram.
when emotions are expressed through likes, comments, and sharing, the social currency becomes the highest value. Previously, in regular communication, an event was retold with a subjective assessment, but in the digital world, sharing and responding in the form of symbols are sufficient.
online harassment is one of the scariest and most extreme forms of social media interaction. It manifests itself in cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and other forms.
