The Fear of Missing Out
March 21, 2011 § Leave a Comment
“Social media has made us even more aware of the things we are missing out on.”
Found from link above, but full original post is here.
I think “The Fear of Missing Out” is such a huge motivator for why we behave the way we do online. My friends were all on Myspace/Facebook since at least 2005, but I resisted for so long. “Can’t people pick up the phone if they have something to say to me?” I naively thought. Eventually in 2008 or 2009 I gave in, only because my friend insisted I sign up just to see pictures of her trip to South Africa. No, I couldn’t miss out on those. No one sits around showing people physical photo albums anymore, so of course I had no choice but to sign up to see what meant so much to my friend. And like the author mentions, yes I feel more connected from seeing what everyone else is doing, but then I also catch myself being human and feeling, “Why don’t I have these same things to do?” Feeling more connected than ever and also more left out than ever; You’re damned if you do, and you’re damned if you don’t when it comes to social networking.
“And, like gym memberships, adding Bergman movies to your Netflix queue and piling up unread copies of the New Yorker, watching these feeds gives you a sense that you’re participating, not missing out, even when you are.”
Also, that line about the Netflix queue rings too true, I am currently at the maximum of 500 on my DVD queue, plus 500 on my instant streaming queue. What can I say? I love films. The thing I hate is that I will never have enough time to watch them all.
