Have you ever had a feeling of regret creeping into your mind when you see such gorgeous photos of your friends’ trips on Facebook? Although you yourself were the one to refuse to join, you are also the one who now feel down like you have missed out something important. If yes, there is a high possibility that you have been suffering from the FOMO syndrome - a prevalent problem of Gen Z. This article will dig deeper on the impacts of social networking sites as well as the FOMO syndrome on our mental health and give out some useful “tricks” for you to use social networks in a more effective way.
Knowing about FOMO
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is a state of anxiety that occurs when you feel that you have missed some precious experiences shared by others. This is a psychological phenomenon which is increasingly spread by the constant stream of news updated on social platforms. When FOMO sufferers scroll through the news, they are often too preoccupied with the images of others’ perfect lives, compare themselves with those people and become more self-conscious.
How has FOMO affected human’s mental health?
Social networks are usually a “stage” for people to show off their best moments of your life and hide all the difficulties and challenges, creating an unrealistic standard of comparison and arousing feelings of insecurity among users, especially youngsters. Studies have linked excessive social media use to the rapidly rising rates of anxiety and depression, and have stated that FOMO plays an important role in this.
A common syndrome of Gen Z
Gen Z is a group of people born between the late 1990s and early 2010s and have grown up in a digital world saturated with social media. Constantly inundated with images of other people's perfect lives, headlines of thousands of dollars a month and so on have made them constantly feel pressure, leading to stress, anxiety and creating a skewed view of reality. According to statistics, up to 56% of network users have been suffering from this syndrome and it is predicted that the number will continue to increase due to the dense coverage of social networks nowadays.
Some simple tips to help you get rid of FOMO
- Create some boundaries
Let’s set a time limit on social media as well as your screen time. Despite the annoying and frustrating feeling at first, it will definitely
become much easier since you have set up your discipline.
(Source: MakeUseOF)
- Carefully select what you really want to consume
- Careful selection of the quantity and quality of content on social networks and unfollowing accounts that always make you compare yourself and create a feeling of insecurity for you. Since then, you will never be affected by what is happening in others’ lives.
- Enjoy the present
Why don’t you foster gratitude and appreciate what you are having instead of “immersing” in the negativeness brought by FOMO? Let’s focus on what you are doing, focus on the people that are truly important to you, or just simply focus on yourself.
- Be more and more “offline”
Social media has made connecting between people more "convenient", leading to the consequence that we become “lazier and lazier”
in real life relationships. So, let’s take up the habit of disconnecting from social media to recharge and reconnect with yourself, creating
time for self-care.
Learning how to free your mind
Social networks have become something indispensable in our daily life. That’s why you should spare some time to reflect on your social media habits and assess how they affect your mental health. Awareness is the first step to free your mind, from which you will be able to develop a healthier relationship with social media and protect your spirit against the invisible pressures of the virtual world.
Hly | Tia.
