Can’t Miss Out: The Science Behind FOMO in College

KRISTIN KEITH – Imagine this: it’s a Thursday night, and you’re swamped with homework. You’re slightly sick and viciously sleep-deprived. You have laundry to do, floors to sweep, and dishes to wash. There is no reason for you to leave the stress-induced cocoon of blankets you’ve formed for yourself on your bed. Suddenly, your phone blinks to life with a text—all of your friends are getting ready for a party nearby. Will you be coming as well? You deliberate, fingers hovering over the keyboard, thinking about chemistry assignments and the bags under your eyes.

An hour later, you’re screaming the wrong lyrics to “Superbass” in a crowded, neon-light-filled room. Your vocal cords are shredded, you yawn at least once every five minutes, and you feel oddly cold (is that a fever coming on?). In going to the party, you’ve defied all logic; for seemingly no reason, you’ve put your physical health on the line when you could’ve had a productive, restful night.

College students everywhere have experienced this phenomenon. Officially becoming a word by the Oxford Dictionary in 2013, FOMO (an abbreviation of “fear of missing out”) is perhaps one of the most ubiquitous mental health conditions experienced by today’s youth. The feeling is characterized by the irrational fear that other people are being more social, having more fun, and living better lives than you are, regardless of how close you are to them. According to Verywell Mind, FOMO isn’t marked by simply thinking you could be doing something better, but by truly believing you are missing out on something “fundamentally important” that others are experiencing  It is often triggered by a post or message sent through social media outlets such as Instagram, Snapchat, or Facebook, and it exacerbates feelings of loneliness, helplessness, and anxiousness in its victims. 

FOMO is especially intensified in college. Students are constantly surrounded by peers with similar interests and social drives—the line between home life and social life becomes blurry, allowing for seemingly unlimited opportunities for social interaction. Along with,relentless proximity of other students, there is a persistent pressure from the university itself to engage with others, from participating in Greek life to joining school clubs and study groups. According to research conducted by the University of British Columbia, burnt out in an effort to make their first year “count,” nearly half of first-year students reported lowered self-esteem and the belief  that their peers have higher social well-being. Moreover, young adults are using social media more than ever, with the usage of major platforms up by 1000 percent since 2007 (Pew Research Center); new ways to communicate, such as live streaming on Instagram and location-based stories on Snapchat let students stay even more up-to-date on their peers’ social lives. These factors accumulate to have detrimental effects: for a college student, even something as simple as eating a meal alone in a dining hall is enough to prompt a strong bout of FOMO. 

But what occurs in the brain to make FOMO so incontestably potent and prevalent? In a 2003 study published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, scientists designed a ball-tossing game inside of an fMRI machine that would purposefully exclude each of its participants at different times. The players were monitored throughout the game; during moments of alienation, it was found that their anterior cingulate cortex and right prefrontal cortex became more active, indicating their brains were acknowledging negative feelings of distress and attempting to mediate them. This is similar to the response the brain has when processing pain. The study concluded that during social isolation, people feel the emotional equivalent of being physically hurt. The reason FOMO is especially dangerous is that it engenders not only these painful feelings of social exclusion but also strong notions of regret. This psychological phenomenon, known as “affective forecasting,” occurs when people try to predict how they would feel in a certain, future social setting. For example, if a student turns down an offer to go to a party, they will irrationally feel as if they’ve missed an important opportunity to have fun even when the party has yet to start. The brain’s strong response to exclusion and its tendency to make affective forecasts causes FOMO to be an emotion that is both persistent and powerful—one that could eventually lead to lowered self-esteem and depression. 

Being in a situation where you feel left out isn’t completely hopeless. Although most are easier said than done, there are tactics to minimize sentiments of FOMO. One such method is to reduce your social media usage, whether that means setting technology time limits for yourself or completely deleting the platforms themselves. In order to reduce FOMO, it is critical you stop comparing yourself to and idealizing the lives of others; without the means to stay updated on irrelevant gatherings such as that impromptu coffee date between two of your friends, you’ll be less likely to feel like you’re missing out on something critical. Additionally, it is vital to make an active effort to be grateful for the things you have. According to Paul Dolan, a professor at the London School of Economics and visiting scholar at Princeton, “changing behavior and enhancing happiness is as much about withdrawing attention from the negative as it is about attending to the positive.” Instead of concentrating on the supposed happiness of others, focus on what you take for granted, whether it be your family, a new promotion, or a nice place to live. When you appreciate the good in your own life, the effects of perceived social exclusion diminish. So stay in, clean your room, catch up on sleep, and learn the right lyrics to “Superbass.” The world has never been more connected—resist the illusion of FOMO and truly enjoy those peaceful, priceless moments of solitude.

Copy Editors: Tasha Jose, Aursuhi Tandon

Photography Source: Ushna Syed

Sources:
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/having-fomo-college-and-how-deal

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/social-media-college-mental-health_n_55ae6649e4b08f57d5d28845

http://princetoninnovation.org/magazine/2016/05/11/science-behind-fomo-david-lopera/

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z453qy/we-asked-some-psychologists-to-explain-the-science-behind-your-crippling-fomo

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0146167217727496?journalCode=pspc

https://time.com/collection/guide-to-happiness/4358140/overcome-fomo/