Do you find yourself scrolling endlessly and compulsively through the lives of other people on social media? Then you realize, “I’ve lost a couple of hours of my day!”And you feel worse, not better.

If this sounds familiar, you might be experiencing FOMO–the Fear Of Missing Out! But why is this even a thing? Is it a thing?

Yes it is! It has now been established as a research topic.

FOMO  has 2 components: 1) The perception that you are missing out and 2) compulsive behavior to maintain social connections on-line. The result of engaging in FOMO usually puts you in a negative emotional state due to your own unmet social relatedness needs.

FOMO has been shown to cause sleep problems, impact attention span, work productivity and cause you to make mistakes if you are constantly interrupting tasks to check on-line. And the feelings of envy and social exclusion do not help your mental health. Envious people tend to be irritable, angry and even hostile at times. You simply feel bad when you spend time thinking about what other people have and you do not. Envy is the opposite of gratitude and a close cousin to jealousy.

Now, there is a human tendency to compare our lives to others, to even envy what we see or hear. Why? Because down deep, we all want to belong and be connected to others. But feeding our longing with FOMO can lead to low self-esteem, rejection and loneliness. Sometimes anxiety and depression result. And consider this, when you have so many choices on-line, you can find yourself obsessing on whether you read or clicked the right things. Did I miss something I should have seen? Do I need to follow a particular influencer? Too many choices and you feel anxious.

While FOMO might not be completely avoidable (unless you get off social media), you can certainly work on reducing its impact. Here is how:

1. Reduce or eliminate your time on any platform. The more time you spend scrolling through what appears to be the good life for others, the worse you will feel.
2. If you know vacation posts bring up FOMO, remove or pause on those platforms for awhile. Don’t look at them!
3. Stop following people who make you feel bad. If you know looking at someone’s post is going to result in envy or sadness, unfollow!
4. Balance your social media with real life get togethers. This is the type of connection you really need. It’s real -no filters or carefully worded captions! You get to know the person, flaws and all.
5. Remember, pictures don’t tell you the real life story of a person’s life. People do not post the negative parts of their life so you are seeing a lopsided view.
6. Practice gratitude and be thankful for what you have-this is the antidote for envy!
7. Substitute FOMO for JOMO (joy of missing out). Be content with who you are. I know, easier said than done, but this should be your goal. We all need to learn to be content with who we are and what God has given us. So focus on the joy of being you!