FOMO Generation

When I see a 14-year-old girl having 172 "likes" on her profile picture, I wonder what would be our lives without this faithful – and from now on listed on the stock exchange – friend, named Facebook, more social showcase than social network.

I read a few articles, watched some TV reports, and apparently, there would be a new craze in western countries... An epidemic that spreads out – maybe not as fast as Ebola – but almost.

But of course, it's a rich kind of Ebola (something for wealthy people), not something that eradicates us very quickly. It's something cerebral, more complex, more tortured, something more hip: the FOMO. [Nothing to do with the Femen nor the Omo laundry powder]

The « FEAR OF MISSING OUT» 

People with Ebola fear missing something like healing, or life. A fear which is a bit medieval, let's be honest...

To sum up, the FOMO is: observe that we are all alone, feeling like shit, in a lousy place while others (e.g. our super Facebook friends) are taking it easy on an paradise island on the other side of the world. And this is due to the different kinds of post on social networks.

Like in any kind of disease, I guess there are several levels, different steps :

- Step 1 : light FOMO 

I 'm alone in my appartment in Paris, it's a rainy sunday. Yesterday, I was partying hard, in a nightclub where there was nothing to hit on, nothing to bring home but lousy people. So I drank to forget that I was alone. This afternoon on FB I saw pictures of my friends living in the South of France, drinking a glass of rosé under the sun . Ouch ! Why am I not there ? (I'm comforting myself thinking that rosé + hangover would never have been a good idea)

- Step 2 : moderate FOMO

I 'm alone in my appartment in Paris, it's a rainy sunday. Yesterday, I was partying hard, in a nightclub where there was nothing to hit on, nothing to bring home but lousy people. So I drank to forget that I was alone. My friends went to Michael Jackson's concert (yes, I know, the guy is dead but it's hypothetical and it's my chronicle, I'm writing what I want). This afternoon, I saw their pictures: I am lousy people, my life sucks. The only way to make me feel better would be to realize that  Michael Jackson was musically dead anyway before dying for good.

- Step 3 : heavy FOMO 

I 'm alone in my appartment in Paris, it's a rainy sunday. Yesterday, I was partying hard, in a nightclub where there was nothing to hit on, nothing to bring home but lousy people. So I drank to forget that I was alone. Friends of mine (a couple, actually) leaft for the Maldives because "winter's way too long when you live in France". Pictures on Facebook: these two sons of b... lovebirds are lying on their deckchair: next to them, a cocktail of exotic fruits, a 5 stars palace, in front of them a huge pool and in front of it the sea. And as well as I know them, it's a hotel where kids are not allowed, in other words: Heavan on Earth. I take a look at my aspirin tablet: I hate my life, I'd prefer to be Michael Jackson (not to say DEAD), to make this statement.

The second angle of the FOMO is also the fear of missing an action, or something that would happen on a social network like a comment, the reply to this comment, a like, the like of this like, a retweet, an add to favorites, a new follower... of something posted beforehand.

It is indeed this disease that make us look frenetically our smartphones up, more than 150 times a day. Having to connect every half an hour, every hour, or every day (for the healthiest minds of us), to track the least one can do which is linked to us. Being part of the 75% of people that connects as soon as they are awake (source: Digital Detox, Canal +).

We have all experienced the situation when we're having a drink with someone (friend, sibling, colleague) and this someone can help checking his phone and his "news feed". As if what happens on social networks was more important that being here and share this moment together. As if what happens on the web could not wait. A kind of EasyJet of our virtual lives "You are late, We don't wait".

During philosophy classes, I learnt that the moment you declare being or doing something while you are actually doing it, we stop being what we were saying we were. We are beyond. If you declare, when having a fit of the giggles, "Oh my god, what a laugh !", the enjoyment will stop immediately. And so the laugh.

Well, it's the same thing for social networks' posts: taking a picture when we are getting to a wonderful place, or eating an amazing meal and then BANG, the heart of our attention is not focused on what we are doing but on its emphasis, its exposure in front of everyone. We forget to really enjoy it.

However, we all do down-to-earth things, less glorious things, things that are less marketable, that are just common. Those things are everyday-life things from eating yogurt in front of TV and grocery shopping to go to the bathroom. I am ready to bet that the FOMO is coming to the bathroom with more than 50% of us. 

Well, to hell with it, we need reading... No, honestly, let's take a book !

- Into The Wild, 2007 -

So what if we learn how to live life the fullest again ? We could learn how to enjoy this yogurt under a soft blanket again, just Him and us, without #yummy #instafood # Danone #foodporn.

P.S: Steve Jobs himself forbade the iPad use to his children...