FoMO stands for fear of missing out, whose translation into Spanish is "fear of missing something." The expression describes a new form of anxiety that emerged after the popularization of mobile phones and social networks, a compulsive need to be connected.
To a greater or lesser extent, we all suffer from FoMO. Who has not sat in a bar without looking away from the mobile? A recent statistic indicates that 56% of social network users are sensitive to this type of anxiety disorder, and that half have increased the frequency with which they visit these websites in the last year.
And addiction to them is common. FoMO is the modern manifestation of a typical fear, that of exclusion. We are animals programmed to be part of a group, and social networks fulfill the role that physical friendships previously had. In the real world, it's easy to ignore what's happening outside of our field of vision, but in the digital world, we're one click away from knowing what our friends are up to at any time.
Content selection – we usually just share the nice and eye-catching – does the rest. A glance at social media makes you think that everyone has much more interesting lives than yours and reinforces the idea that you are missing things.
