FOMO – Fear of missing out

The bathtub was invented in 1850, and the telephone in 1875. Had you been living in 1850, you could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without the darn phone ringing. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Also,

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet – also Abraham Lincoln.

1. How many times have you slipped into the bathroom while rushing half-naked back to the living room to receive a relentlessly ringing phone, probably a spam caller? Also, as part of the lesson learnt from the previous incident, do you now take your phone to the bathroom?
2. Do you set the alarm to wake you up at 12 a.m. just to wish your college roommate or a distant cousin a happy birthday?
3. Do you browse through every combo offer of Domino’s app on their discount on Saturday pizza? Do you compare each option at various other vendor sites and end up ordering a topping that you don’t even like?
4. Do you have at least 5 social media apps notifying you that your ex-ex-ex colleague went to Ooty and wore a dress with a new purple shade?
5. Have you bought a new iPhone whose only significant improvement from the previous version is a screen larger by 0.003 inches?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, you are suffering from a FOMO. Evidently, it’s a highly contagious social epidemic with severity ranging from depression all the way to walking-dead zombies. It is a pretty severe matter fueled by social media and directly proportional to the number of people befriended on those platforms.

These are my thoughts on how you can fix it.

1. Make liberal use of the ‘do not disturb’ mode. The world is not ending tomorrow. Whatever grabbed your attention can wait. If that call were about the world ending tomorrow, then would you rather know it today?
2. Do not multitask. It is overrated.
3. Do not let any app chime your phone, except maybe for the caller app, no one else.
4. Use your nature-given eyes, not your phone, to enjoy concerts and events. Prioritize your life over the recorded history of your life.

There are more tips and suggestions from experts. Please go through 10 ways to overcome FOMO.