Silence is God’s first language; everything else is a poor translation.
-Thomas Keating1
We have all seen them: the chic couple in a restaurant passionately thumbing their smartphones while ignoring one another, each cocooned in his or her private world. Then there is the etiquette buster at the movies in the seat in front of us, who ignores the prohibition of texting while his smartphone’s retina-scorching screen blinds us. And there is the annoying person in line at Starbucks who cannot stop messaging long enough to keep the line moving. All these individuals have something in common: They may be suffering from FOMO.
FOMO or FoMO is an acronym for ‘fear of missing out.” It appeared in the Urban Dictionary as word of the day on April 14, 2011.2 FOMO is considered a form of social anxiety-a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity for social interaction, a novel experience, or some other satisfying event, often aroused by posts seen on social media sites.3, 4 FOMO reflects a worry that friends may be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent.
FOMO Facts
Research psychologist, Andrew Przybylski of the University of Essex, and colleagues3 at University of California-Los Angeles and University of Rochester […]
