Wikipedia defines FoMO as 'fear of missing out' or as 'a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent'. This social angst is characterized by "a desire to stay continually connected with what others are doing"
The human experience depicted by social media is never the whole truth—and is often an outright lie. For a photograph, all force a smile on their face, no matter how terrible one may feel. These are moments of artificial joy and are very short-lived but are disguised as everyday activities. We tend to mistake this onscreen gallery of joy and happiness for a wonderful real life.
But the whole truth is that most of us spend enormous portions of our time looking for our car keys, cursing a torn shoe, arguing with the auto-rickshaw driver, stuck up in the traffic, getting to work, and dealing with marital and children’s issues and all this can never be memorialized in pictures or words.
Thus rather than suspecting if there's something wrong with you, remind yourself that practically every image you see on practically any screen is likely misleading and sometimes even fake. They show only the peaks. The fabulous life you think you're missing doesn't in fact exist.
So the next time social media tries to convince you that those zany snapshots, chipper text messages, and breezy e-mails represent the way other people feel all the time, recognize the media image for the liar it is. A single dose of truth may cure your insecurity.
