FOMO

Most of social media is of no interest to me, except twitter, which occupies a special place in my heart. I recently had a friend ask me why Twitter, out of all the social media options, had secured my active participation. The answer is twofold. First, twitter allows people to follow my without me having to return the favor. Secondly, I’m able to stay connected to individuals who give me access to breaking / inside news. Not surprisingly, most of my favorite follows on twitter are those who the public would consider “basketball insiders”. Twitter gives me the opportunity to know that a super obscure player on the 76ers is being sent down to their D-League affiliate. The majority of the world doesn’t care, I do. Twitter gives me this access.

But I’m not naïve enough to think that Twitter (like all of social media) isn’t without fault. The downfalls are numerous. Chief among them is that users can say terrible things anonymously. Society sucks. Twitter gives the worst the opportunity to flex their internet muscles and say things online they would never say in person. But this isn’t only an issue on Twitter, all of social media falls prey to the worst aspects of human interaction. I usually try to keep my conversations on twitter inbounds. I don’t have time to go through my 5,000 + tweets, but if I did I would guess that I’ve never said anything seriously harmful to another. This doesn’t make me perfect, just intelligent enough to not put everything I might think online for public consumption.

My biggest downfall with Twitter is different, and generally doesn’t affect others. Twitter gives me FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), bad. Most people associate FOMO and social media with high schoolers on Facebook who determine that all of their friends are doing something they’re not. My FOMO is different. I get FOMO when it comes to consuming media. When I check my timeline and see multiple people commenting on the same thing I feel this compelling urge to immediately become a part of the conversation. Be it a sportingevent, political debate, an incredible televised gaffe, or that hot new show, I will go out of my way to investigate the situation. However, when I’m unable to participate in the public discourse or, view this “must see event” it gives me anxiety. It’s ridiculous. Twitter makes it seem like everyone is doing something that I’m not, like I’m the loser who finds out about the birthday party everyone was invited to, but me. My inability to consume all of the latest and greatest media shouldn’t make me feel like I could be missing a substantial part of history, but it does. Feeling left out isn’t unique to the social media age, Twitter just exacerbates the issue.

I picked up on the idiosyncrasy during Sunday’s this fall. I felt compelled, even obligated, to watch NFL football, regardless of the quality of the game. And if we’re being brutally honest this season has been hot garbage. I’d love to be able to say that this is based on important issues surrounding the game (concussions, domestic abuse etc…) or even questions of the integrity of the game (officiating, “deflategate” etc…). But in reality, the majority of games have been awful, even if the colossal Cowboys failure is removed from the equation. Yet I still recognized an innate need to sit on my couch and watch another “riveting” AFC South matchup between the Texans and Jaguars. But why, so that I can be informed if someone at the proverbial water cooler wants to BS about Bortles looking better this year? However, it’s not limited to sports, a bunch of people tweet about Sharknado and I feel the urge to spend my precious time watching Tara Reid give birth while inside a shark.

In reality, Twitter should ease my concern. Within seconds of anything interesting happening those on social media are more than willing to share this information with the world at large. Between Vines and GIF’s this information isn’t limited to the written word. So I should be able to not worry about “catching” anything because my timeline will give me a full summary of the event within minutes. Instead of needing to witness everything first hand, I should focus on just catching the cliff notes.

 I’ve tried to self-diagnose this overarching need for involvement and I think I’ve stumbled upon the answer.

I’m a maximizer by nature. This means that in all courses of life I must make the “best choice”, regardless of how long it takes me to contemplate all of the available options. It could be about large decisions, such as what career I should pursue, or as simple as which pair of jeans I should buy.  Either way I must make the optimal choice because a good choice will not suffice. So at night when I have my hour to spare I feel a need to make the “best” use of that time. Should I listen to that new podcast everyone is tweeting about? Or should I read that new book that is soaring up the bestsellers list? Trump is debating tonight, better catch that…. But then I’ll glance at my phone and see folks commenting on this awesome game that’s about to go into OT, maybe I should switch over to that?  I fall into this wormhole of analysis and I hope it sounds exhausting and lame, because it is. I have limited time, I should spend it optimally, and instead I take this limited time and spend chunks of it deciding how to use it.  Sounds like insanity to me. Twitter gives me access to more information than I can handle, and yet I’m addicted to it, crave it.

So what’s the best way to fix this? Should I swear off TV completely? Or should I deactivate my social media accounts? Perhaps I could blog about it? Maybe I should spend my time researching the best way to rid myself of FOMO. Or maybe I should realize that none of this stuff even matters because our “microwave” culture dictates that what is most important today will be obsolete tomorrow. Hopefully, my FOMO issue will follow this trend.