Social Media & Mindfulness: From the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) Towards the Joy of Missing Out (JOMO)

The recent rise of anxiety, depression, and suicide among teenagers and young adults has been linked to the overuse of social media. Nearly 70% of millennials experience “FOMO,” the “fear of missing out,” which includes anxiety arising from viewing social media content that makes one feel left out from rewarding experiences others are having. We aim to alleviate social media FOMO by developing and testing a mindfulness-based intervention. The objective of this intervention is to raise one's awareness of their social media usage habits which will lead to more intentional and conscious social media usage that will ultimately enhance well-being. We hypothesize that when users make intentional choices about their social media use, they will experience the joy of missing out (JOMO) on automatic and mindless consumption of social media.