Baker Z, Krieger H, LeRoy A. Fear of missing out: Relationships with depression, mindfulness, and physical symptoms. APA PsychNet. 2016;(3):275-282. Anxiety, loneliness and Fear of Missing Out: The impact of social media on young people's mental health". Centre for Mental Health . Retrieved 2022-07-02.

Don’t have any real customers yet? That’s no problem. But it means you’ll likely need to let a handful of people try your product or services for free. While it seems that FOMO is associated with negative effects, a study revealed that FOMO can also bring about positive effects when acted upon with mediation techniques such as engaging in social media to enhance social connection. (Roberts & David, 2019) The key is to not pressure yourself into doing anything extravagant. You must allow yourself to enjoy whatever you are doing. It does not matter if you are reading a book, going for a walk, or watching a movie. You need to allow yourself to enjoy whatever it is that has your current attention. Pérez S, Peñate W, Bethencourt JM, Fumero A. Verbal emotional disclosure of traumatic experiences in adolescents: The role of social risk factors. Front Psychol. 2017;8:372. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00372The average person spends 147 minutes a day on social media [1] Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2022. Statistics. Accessed 8/31/2022. . Because of this, we’re more aware than ever of how others are spending their time. Every party, vacation and even meal out seems to be documented for the world to see. Missing out on something can lead to the impression that we’re uninteresting, boring, or just plain. Because we instinctively care what others think about us, we still attend events, even if we don’t want to be there. The FoMO countermeasures booklet (Booklet 2) presents people with a variety of countermeasures that can be used to manage different kinds of FoMO.

Another contributor to the feeling of being overwhelmed is information overload. We are exposed to so much information these days through our phones, work, and life that it’s too much for our brains to digest. This is an interesting article and describes an important problem of the dependency of social media. However, this is NOT what FOMO is. I think someone who is not a young person is misunderstanding the meaning of FOMO. MOMO stands for the Mystery Of Missing Out, referring to the paranoia that arises when one's friends do not post anything on social media resulting in attempts to piece together what one may be missing out on. [52]

Second, it is also important to be honest with others, too. They have to be aware that you may not be 100% committed to their requests if you have plenty of other life happenings going on at the same time. 3. Distinguish Online From Reality Social media is not the only thing that causes FOMO. For example, you might get an invitation to a weekend party that you don’t necessarily want to attend, but go anyway because you don’t want to feel left out when your friends talk about it on Monday. Social media facilitates FOMO, but people have always experienced it,” explains Dr. Vogel. While anything that makes someone feel left out can be a cause of FOMO, agrees Dr. Dattilo, a few of the more common causes include: When it comes to an actual age range, teens and youth are more at risk for experiencing FOMO. “Younger people are considerably more at risk due to the increased amount of time spent online coupled with a heightened sensitivity to and need for social approval and belongingness,” says Dr. Dattilo a b "Singapore's 'kiasu' culture makes FOMO look like child's play". Los Angeles Times. 2019-01-18 . Retrieved 2021-11-04. a b c d e f Milyavskaya, Marina; Saffran, Mark; Hope, Nora; Koestner, Richard (2018-10-01). "Fear of missing out: prevalence, dynamics, and consequences of experiencing FOMO". Motivation and Emotion. 42 (5): 725–737. doi: 10.1007/s11031-018-9683-5. ISSN 1573-6644. S2CID 149261024.