Name: 【TEDx】FOMO - the fear of missing out: Bobby Mook at TEDxUNC
Uploaded: 2015-06-22T14:09:05.000Z
Duration: 8 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

You're curled up in bed.  Book, open in your hands.

because you've had a long week  of work, and errands, and activities

you really couldn't be more excited  than to be in your bed.

Then, as you turn the page,  a friend texts you a video.

And as soon as you press that regrettable finger to the play button,

and as the beat drops  and the camera pans over the crowd,

you see all your best friends  at a packed house party

Whereas just a couple of moments before you were blissfully happy in your bed,

Sitting in your bed at 10pm, on a Friday night in your pyjamas.

FOMO is an acronym for the Fear Of Missing Out.

however today's society  has more channels than ever

When we understand it and recognize it, it can guide us.

Everyone here can relate to  being at dinner with family or friends

and being distracted because your phone is vibrating in your pocket

Having a moment where you sit in complete  and terribly uncomfortable silence

as everyone around the table has their heads down, texting.

So the fear of missing out keeps us from connecting with people

Think about a day where from the moment you set foot out of bed

you were a blur of action, clothes on, granola for the road,

rush between meetings and meetings between phone calls

and finally you decided to get a quick coffee break to rest;

but even when we try to rest, we struggle with it.

We feel like we need to be doing something

or talking to someone or checking our phone.

to look like we are sitting at a table drinking our coffee alone.

So the fear of missing out not only disconnects us from people

but it keeps us from enjoying the present moment.

And the last effect of the fear of missing out

is that impedes us from achieving our goals.

At some point all of us have procrastinated on a goal.

Those times where we know we need to be doing something

to make a deadline but instead we decide to do something else,

expediently, like hang out with friends and watch the game.

And invariably in one of those nights, we have a moment

where we realize we've made a terrible mistake.

And that moment generally goes something like this.

You're hanging out with your friends, you're having a good time,

you remember that you have a deadline fast approaching... and boom!

You have a huge pit of stress in your stomach

All you can think about are the things that you should've been doing,

From that point on, you're distracted from your friends,

Just like Drake recoined Carpe Diem with his terrible acronym YOLO,

FOMO is a new word for something that has afflicted humans forever.

For instance, the Romans suffered from chronic FOMO,

and perhaps none suffered more than Marcus Tullius Cicero.

Cicero had such bad FOMO that he was horrified of missing out

and since he didn't have something like Facebook to turn to...

... he needed to find a new way to deal with his FOMO.

So he arranged for letters to be sent from the capital

that chronicled everything from the political happenings

to, probably more importantly, juicy gossip and scandals.

And the fear of missing out becomes even more interesting

In 1938 a study known as the Harvard Grant study,

which is one of the most comprehensive studies ever done

on the causes of happiness, began charting the physical and emotional health

and they tracked it through all developmental phases.

Through young adulthood, middle adulthood, and maturity.

And after 75 years, the study found that across the board,

keys to being happy are connection and accomplishment.

And if we think about the effects of the fear of missing out,

it keeps us from connecting and accomplishing.

But first, we need to talk about the role that technology plays in all of this.

Don't get me wrong. Connecting technology is incredible.

We have the ability to connect with friends

instantaneously and from around the world.

But there is a limit on how much we can connect

and when we overconnect we feel the strain.

Studies show that overuse of social media and cellphones

is correlated to higher anxiety and lower performance.

But this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

【TEDx】FOMO - the fear of missing out: Bobby Mook at TEDxUNC

stress

fear

feel

question