Fear of Missing Out
2011
Is being connected 24/7 a blessing or a curse? It seems that with the rise of smart phones and laptops, people can be online and connected to their favorite sources of information at anytime. Personally I think it's a curse. A miniature experiment. A few weeks back, I took a trip to the middle of nowhere Montana to disconnect and do some networking with actual people. That's right, not on Linked In, Facebook or any other online hangout -- in person. I planned on the trip being a total disconnect from my online social life and my face-to-face social life back in Ohio. I love my "friends," but I was really looking for a break. I wanted to shut off that constant connection. I went into the mountains fully expecting to lose cellphone service and not see a lick of wifi for a week. I honestly didn't want to see my iPhone for the next six days.
Is being connected 24/7 a blessing or a curse? It seems that with the rise of smart phones and laptops, people can be online and connected to their favorite sources of information at anytime. Personally I think it’s a curse.
A miniature experiment.
A few weeks back, I took a trip to the middle of nowhere Montana to disconnect and do some networking with actual people. That’s right, not on Linked In, Facebook or any other online hangout — in person. I planned on the trip being a total disconnect from my online social life and my face-to-face social life back in Ohio. I love my “friends,” but I was really looking for a break. I wanted to shut off that constant connection. I went into the mountains fully expecting to lose cellphone service and not see a lick of wifi for a week. I honestly didn’t want to see my iPhone for the next six days.
When I started to turn off my phone, I realized there was more service at the cabin in the woods than there was at the airport. Something’s not right with this picture, I know. Needless to say, I turned my phone off anyway and left it for 48 hours. Knowing I had the connection if I wanted it was comforting, but it was also something I didn’t want. Knowing I could connect just fanned the flames.
Two days after we arrived, I had to power on my phone. It wasn’t entirely because I wanted to know what was going on. It was because I wanted to share my experience. At the same time, I felt like I had potentially missed out on breaking news in my friends lives. At the time, I wasn’t sure of what was driving me to use Facebook and Twitter in the middle of the wilderness.
A miniature failure.
A few days after I got back, I read a blog post by Caterina Fake about FOMO. After reading it, I realized that social media is turning society into an uber connected web that we can’t break free from. We have access to our “friends” lives without being in direct contact with them. Social presence, the need to fit in, has always been a driving factor of society, and social media exacerbates the problem. We don’t want to miss out on anything in someones life because it could directly or even indirectly impact the relationship with that person. Further more, we want people to know what’s going on in our lives. We have a need to express ourselves. It’s a perpetuating cycle. We don’t want to miss out on the events in anyone’s life, and we don’t want them to miss out on ours.
- Do you have issues disconnecting or with FOMO? What drives you to use social media, and are you addicted?
I think it’s great you forced yourself out of social media for days! I’m sure that’d be very hard for me to do. I get on Facebook and Twitter almost everyday and I can’t imagine not getting on for so long. Like you said in your blog, you feel like you’re missing out or someone is missing out on what you’re doing. We love to know what others around us are up to. I was shocked to see that your phone worked in the middle of nowhere Montana! Maybe you should’ve left your phone behind, but it’s not like you knew there would be service! Your adventure reminds me of when I deactivated my Facebook account. I felt that I was on it too much and that I needed to just get rid of it completely. That only lasted a week! I applaud anyone who can disconnect from the social media anymore because I think it’s almost impossible. Thanks for you blog, I really enjoyed it!
I am almost shocked you wanted to leave the social media world during your trip. I’ll be honest and say I am addicted to it and it is almost unhealthy. The internet walks with us everywhere, thanks to smartphones. Whenever I am not on facebook, especially twitter, for a few days I almost feel left out and feel like I have a lot of catching up to do on my friends. I would say social media is a blessing and a curse. It is nice to have your e-mails sent to you through phone and be able to access them immediately or to have twitter right at your fingertips. However, at times you would like to be left alone it is almost at an annoying level where I’d like to toss my phone out the window. Or when you have some tweeters tweet about every move they make or about pointless things. I’m happy that I can say I am not the only one addicted to social media though. A few of my friends that do not have smartphones yet are almost “lost” when my friends and I are tweeting through our phone or when we can see what is going on on facebook right then and there. They feel left out.
Britt: How did you feel when you deactivated your account? Did you find yourself stuck with the FOMO?
Chelsea:
I’m a little addicted to social media too. Smart phones only make the problem worse, but I think they really demonstrate the FOMO. As soon as I get a notification on my iPhone that someone commented on a post, I have to check it. I have that need to know.
I can’t even imagine not having a smartphone today. There’s no way I could live without it. I might actually feel some anxiety if I didn’t have it.