FOMO

History

The phenomenon was first identified in 1996 by Dr. Dan Herman, a marketing strategist, who researched it and published the first academic paper on the topic in 2000 in The Journal of Brand Management.
Author Patrick J. McGinnis coined the term FOMO and made it popular in 2004 when he published an op-ed in The Harbus, the magazine of Harvard Business School, titled "McGinnis' Two FOs: Social Theory at HBS", in which he referred to FOMO and another related condition, FoBO (Fear of a Better Option) and their role in social life at the school.  The etymology of FOMO has also been traced to the 2004 Harbus article by academic Joseph Reagle.
Fear of missing out results from the new and increasing addiction to social media. Scholars Blackwell et al., discuss the effects of certain predictors that social media addiction can have. The article begins with what constitutes as a social media addiction and how it comes to be. The increasing use of social media can lead to a fast and hard to break addiction. They define addiction to social media as when one is unable to control their usage of media to the point where it can cause interference in their lives. Their study has a focus on four main predictors that one is addicted or becoming addicted to social media. These four predictors are extraversion, neuroticism, attachment style, and fear of missing out (FOMO). These personality traits make it easy for one to determine their dependency on media.
Fear of missing out or FOMO as they call it is the fear of not being included. This fear has manifested and grown intensely because of social media. Individuals are now able to view and have constant access to what their friends and peers are doing. FOMO is almost a direct result of social media addiction because all social media is, is seeing what others are doing. The constant use of smartphones ultimately leads to people constantly viewing sites all day long.
Fear of missing out (FOMO) refers to the apprehension that one is either not in-the-know or is out of touch with some social events, experiences, and interactions. People who grapple with FOMO might not know exactly what they are missing but can still hold a fear that others are having a much better time or having a much more rewarding experience on the spur of the moment. FOMO could result from a variety of social activities in which one is absent, such as a conversation, a TV show, a wedding, a party, or a delicious restaurant in town.
FOMO could simply exist as a pervasive mental state, but it can also lead to different physical reactions (e.g., sweating) and real-world behaviors. According to a survey conducted in the US and UK, the majority of adult Millennials (current age between 18 and 34) stated that they want to say yes to everything due to the fear of missing out; over half of the respondents said that they barely invest sufficient energy or time in delving into topics or new interests. Moreover, FOMO serves as a motive for an increasing use of social media, which could distract people from learning in the classroom and operating motor vehicles. Furthermore, unhealthy digital habits, such as constantly checking for emails and social media updates, could be developed and thus lead to insufficient engagement in present social interactions.
Besides its impact on real-world social activities, FOMO could also influence the formation of long-term goals and people's self-perceptions. Around half of the respondents stated that they are overwhelmed by the amount of information that allows them to stay up-to-date and it is almost impossible to not miss out on something. Through the process of relative deprivation, FOMO is also found to be conducive to people's dissatisfaction with their experiences and a feeling of having less. Moreover, FOMO also plays a negative role in people's overall psychological well-being. FOMO is believed to trigger negative social and emotional experiences, such as boredom and loneliness, through social media usage. Consistent with earlier research, an empirical study on FOMO in 2013 found that FOMO has a negative effect on people's overall mood and life satisfaction.
In terms of the cognitive effects, FOMO could further instill a belief that an interruption is more like a "connection". FOMO may drive someone to constantly look for a better or more interesting connection with others, abandoning current connections to do so, without realizing that what they move to is not necessarily better, just different. Moreover, the importance attributed to the potential possibility of social interaction or continuously staying abreast of current events is so intense that personal safety may be ignored. For instance, it is common to find people texting while driving.

Causes and correlations

From the theoretical lens of psychological needs, FOMO could be attributed to situational or long-term deficits in psychological needs satisfaction, the prevalence of which contributes to an increasing transparency of other people's social lives and an escalating amount of real-time information. According to uses and gratifications theory, people actively choose and use social media to fulfill their specific needs, such as their needs for information or staying connected with others through socializing. For people who grapple with FOMO, social media involvement could be attractive because it serves as a convenient tool to be socially connected with a relatively low cost.
Self-determination theory contends that an individual's psychological satisfaction in their competence, autonomy, and relatedness consist of three basic psychological needs for human beings. People with lower levels of basic psychological satisfaction reported a higher level of FOMO; in other words, a significant correlation was identified between basic psychological satisfaction and FOMO. In addition, nearly four in ten young people reported that they experience FOMO sometimes or often. FOMO was found to be negatively correlated with age, and men are more likely than women to report FOMO.
Extraversion as defined by Merriam-Webster is when an individual whose attention and interests are directed wholly on what is outside the self. This means that individuals that are extroverts are very comfortable socially. It makes sense that there is a link between extroversion and higher and more frequent social media use. They use media as a platform that will enhance their social presence and connections with others.
Neuroticism which is a category of neurotic individuals alludes to an emotional instability. This has been proven to correlate to social media use and internet addiction. People that suffer more from neuroticism more so than others are more likely to be drawn towards social media apps such as Facebook and Twitter. They use these apps as an attempt to validate themselves through their peer’s approval. They use these platforms because it is easier for them to interact via social media than in person.
Attachment style can be greatly affected by social media use. Social media was created for people to be able to stay in constant contact with others. Relationship maintenance is heavily based on one's attachment style and those with anxious attachment styles are more likely to be insecure and seek reassurance often from their partner. Social media can exacerbate this as it provides the means for one to contact one's partner at all times. This can also aid relationship maintenance, however, as constant reassurance can be provided to the anxious partner. The fact that social media provides a means of communication in which an instant reply is not necessitated also allows those who suffer from social anxiety to think about what they want to say without the worry of hesitation or awkward pauses. There is some ambiguity in regard to the extent of the correlation between one having an anxious attachment style and one using social media at an increased frequency, although it is strong enough for researchers to consider this as a predictor.
Social media services like Facebook, Foursquare, and Twitter are technological tools for seeking social connection and provide the promise of greater levels of social involvement. However, unhealthy digital habits can discourage sufficient engagement in present social interactions. When people use technology to define themselves by sharing their thoughts and feelings even as they're having them, they indirectly deliver an "I share therefore I am" message, which may lead people to distortedly misunderstand the essence of social connection or interaction. If more and more people attempt to seek novelty to share with others and catch their attention, perhaps they would progressively feel more isolated and empty.
Social media sites have become a large contributing factor to the FOMO sensation. People develop negative feelings and emotions from social media sites because of envy toward others’ posts and lives. Social media has created an easy-to-access, centrally located spot for people to constantly refresh their feeds and find out what others are doing at that exact moment. Snapchat has taken this idea to the next level.  People post Snapchat stories, which are a collection of photos and videos that last 24 hours, of almost any and everything in their lives.  This may be anything from pictures of the meal they just ate to a video of the country music concert they are attending. This allows users to see all the fun things their friends have done throughout the last day, causing FOMO to really set in. Researchers at two German universities looked at Facebook data and found that people had negative feelings when using social media because they saw the seemingly “perfect” lives of their friends.  People who experience FOMO are more inclined to use social media sites because they feel the need to always "stay connected". Before social media and the cell phone surfaced, people typically only knew what their friends were doing by being with them. Today however, people can search for what they missed with a click of a button.
“Millennials” refer to students who are currently attending college.  Millennials focus much of their attention on social interaction with friends and family by using cell phones to voice call or send messages back and forth, as a way to communicate with one another. However, there are down sides, along with up sides. On the up side, it helps individuals stay connected and have a support system while also eliminating stress levels. On the down side, however, technology can be a distraction for students, which can result in high stress level. In addition, social media could be an outlet for addictive behaviors, like depression or anxiety.
Scholars Dhir et al. discuss the potential for depression in relation to social media use and FOMO. They describe depression as an emotional state that does not allow an individual to feel things of pleasure or if they do, it is severely diminished. They go on to mention that depression often includes two extremes of emotion. This is when positives or good moods are low, and negatives or bad moods are high. Those who suffer from depression also experience feelings and symptoms of distress, sadness, anguish, and other extreme emotions. Depression interrupts daily activity and hinders one’s ability to concentrate, sleep, eat, or even move. Over the years, researchers have found out that social media use is a cause of depression. As individuals increase their media exposure, it leads them vulnerable to depression and can even make it worse with FOMO and other media based anxieties.
Anxiety is defined as a state of mind in which one is concerned about difficult situations or threats.Traditional literature suggests that anxious people are likely to suffer from multiple disorders. The idea that anxious people see their anxious state as problematic, chronic and inescapable is something that scholars disagree on. During their anxious state, anxious people tend to be fatigue, exhausted and have physical pain. Scholars have recently begun to study the prevalence of anxiety among social media users. Individuals who are anxious and engage in social media are likely to revert to different coping strategies, like a high engagement in social media use. Anxious users are more engaged on social media in order to relieve their anxious state, by trying to find a sense of belonging on social media and looking for attention.
It is not uncommon for advertising and marketing campaigns to employ the appeal of FOMO in an era of new technology. Brands and companies often inform their customers of "can't-miss-out" experiences or deals (e.g., AT&T's "Don't be left behind" campaign, Duracell's Powermat "Stay in charge" campaign, Heineken's "Sunrise" campaign). Heineken's "Sunrise" campaign, in particular, aimed to encourage responsible drinking by portraying excessive drinking as a way to miss out on the best parts of a party, eschewing the more common warning that such drinking is a risk to personal health. However, there is also a tendency for brands to counter FOMO in their advertisements and campaigns, such as Nescafé's "Wake up to life" campaign. One very common FOMO marketing technique is to include a countdown timer as a way to explicitly show customers how long they have until they miss out on the sale.
FOMO is also perceived to foster higher TV ratings. Real-time updates about one's status and major social events allow a more engaged media consumption experience and faster information dissemination. Real-time tweets about the Super Bowl are considered to be correlated with higher TV ratings because of the appeal of FOMO and the prevalence of social media usage.

In video games

The video game industry utilizes FOMO to get consumers/players to engage in the medium. Video game publishers will create release windows with early access for those that pay for their subscription service. An example is the publisher Electronic Arts. On their main website they have posted, “Try new EA games before launch day. Your save progress carries over to the full game if you decide to buy.” This can be seen in the release of the game Anthem, where Electronic Arts released a chart depicting the various ways to purchase the game and which would grant early access to the game.
The games themselves are also designed to create a fear of missing out. There are a few ways that FOMO is utilized, such as with daily login rewards. Again, Anthem is an example, having daily, weekly, and monthly challenges to complete for various levels of rewards, prompting players to return. “Daily login rewards are a type of system that rewards players for simply logging in to a game each day. Some games will give a player a set reward every day, while others will build up to better rewards the number of consecutive days logged in.”
Mobile games are another example of products that use FOMO to retain large numbers of engagement. Mobile games are well known for timed exclusives of one sort or another. “If there's a chance a player might miss a one-time event, it generates FOMO.” As an example of a mobile game that utilizes FOMO tactics, Crab Wars has a timed currency booster that lasts for three hours, so any time where it’s not active is time spent “losing” money. Compounded on top of this mechanic is a bonus for stacking three of these boosts together at any given time. There are also daily rewards for logging in, which get more rewarding for consecutive days logged in.
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