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disquieted that everyone else is doing something cool without you ? You may have FOMO — awe of Missing Out . Even worse , a unexampled study finds , you may be less satisfied with your life than the average person .
multitude high in FOMO , as the online acronym would have it , finger less competent , less independent and less connected with others than people who do n’t worry aboutbeing leave out , harmonize to the study bring out in the July issuing of the journal Computers in Human Behavior .
FOMO, or Fear of Missing Out, is the sense that all your friends are doing something cool without you – and social media lets you know about it.
But what ’s bad for someone may just be good for Facebook : the great unwashed in high spirits in FOMO were also more likely touse social medium , ostensibly driven by a motive to see what ’s going on when they ’re not around . [ What Really dash multitude : Top 10 Phobias ]
" care of missing out acts as an important sort of waystation , " study researcher Andrew Przybylski , a psychologist at the University of Essex in England , tell LiveScience . " It ’s the thing that get in touch a lot of what we think of as item-by-item differences to social media . "
The fear of miss out
Przybylski was inspired to study FOMO by a 2011 New York Times clause on the phenomenon , in which a writer bemoaned her inability to relish a decent eventide at plate as her Quaker tweeted , Instagrammed and otherwise broadcasted their awing evenings out right to her smartphone .
" I was stunned that no one in psychological science or cyberpsychology or communications had in reality done any enquiry on this topic , " Przybylski enjoin .
First , Przybylski and his fellow worker require a fashion to measure FOMO . They try a 32 - item questionnaire on 672 piece and 341 women , most from the United States and India and the rest scattered around the orb , and narrowed the questions down to 10 that focused on multitude ’s psychological concern of miss out . ( A interpretation of the questionnaire is now on-line atratemyfomo.com . )
Next , the researcher used that questionnaire to order the FOMO of a home sample of 2,079 22- to 65 - year - erstwhile United Kingdom resident . They also asked the participants about their social media betrothal , their life gratification and how autonomous , competent and connected to others they felt in their casual animation .
The less people felt autonomy , competence and connectedness in their daily lives , the more they felt FOMO , the results reveal . People high-pitched in FOMO also used social media more .
societal mass medium and FOMO
It ’s not all clear from the survey whether using social medium drive FOMO or whether FOMO drive social media use , Przybylski say , but a statistical analysis of the data suggests that the lack of liberty , competency and connectedness drives FOMO , which in play leave to the urge to check over Facebook andTwitterconstantly . It ’s likely that FOMO motley fit in to a person ’s experience , Przybylski said , but the study could n’t get at how the tactual sensation change over time .
A third study of 87 undergraduates found that people eminent in FOMO had more positive emotional experiences and more electronegative aroused experiences when checkingFacebookthan masses without much fear of missing out . In other words , FOMO is linked to more intense emotions around social media . Perhaps unsurprisingly , the high - FOMO students were also more likely than their lowly - FOMO similitude to be checking Facebook and other social media sites during their class lectures .
Even more fearful , Przybylski say , was that gamy - FOMO students were more probable to admit todistracted driving habits , let in texting or emailing while drive . Fear of missing out likely has to do with citizenry ’s ability to self - regulate and focus on the second , he pronounce .
" For people who experience very secure in their relationships , their relationship are important to them , but they do n’t experience compelled to always be connected , " Przybylski said . Social sensitive may not create the trend , he pronounce , but it likely exasperate it by urinate sharing so easy .
" Sometimes , " he said , " it ’s good to isolate yourself from the world of possibilities . "
