It starts innocently.
You’re lying in bed. It’s midnight. One scroll before sleep.
Swipe.
Beach party in Bali.
Swipe.
Startup founder gets funded.
Swipe.
Someone just turned 30 and bought a villa in Tuscany.
Swipe.
And you?
Staring at your ceiling, wondering if the ceiling fan is judging your life choices.
Welcome to the modern epidemic: FOMO — the Fear of Missing Out.
Digital Peep Show Culture
FOMO isn’t new. Ancient humans probably felt it too: “Why wasn’t I invited to the mammoth hunt?” But today, we have a 6-inch portal in our pockets showing us curated highlight reels 24/7.
And no, it’s not just about parties and travel. It’s career FOMO. Relationship FOMO. Parenting FOMO. Even wellness FOMO. (“Oh, she’s doing a 10-day silent retreat in the Himalayas, and I can’t even meditate for 10 seconds without checking WhatsApp.”)
Social media is like that friend who never lets you forget what you could be doing instead. It whispers:
“Are you making the most of your life?”
“Shouldn’t you be somewhere else?”
“Are you even trying to be extraordinary?”
The Paradox of Choice and the Prison of Possibility
FOMO thrives in the age of options.
We’ve been told we can be anything — entrepreneur, artist, yogi, van-lifer, CEO, travel blogger — and now we feel guilty for not being everything. Every unchosen path feels like a failure.
We mistake possibility for pressure.
We confuse having access with having to act.
It’s like being at an all-you-can-eat buffet with 70 dishes and realizing you’re too full to enjoy any of them — and yet still piling more on your plate, just in case.
FOMO is Not Just Anxiety. It’s Grief.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth:
FOMO is often unprocessed grief over lives we didn’t live.
We mourn the parallel versions of ourselves — the ones who went to Paris, who launched that brand, who married their college crush, who stuck with cello lessons and now perform at jazz bars.
It’s a quiet ache for unlived dreams.
But the thing is: we only get one life at a time. One sunrise. One coffee. One messy, meaningful now.
The Anti-FOMO Practice: JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)
What if we reframed it?
What if missing out wasn’t a loss, but a gift?
Try this:
- Miss the party and read poetry instead.
- Miss the vacation envy spiral and sit in your local park — no filter needed.
- Miss the grind-hustle mindset and choose rest, creation, or even boredom.
JOMO isn’t passive. It’s radical.
It says, I choose presence over pressure.
It says, This moment — exactly as it is — is enough.
Final Swipe
Next time you feel that pinch in your chest while scrolling through someone else’s ‘perfect’ day, pause.
Ask yourself: What am I really afraid of missing?
Is it their life — or your own?
Maybe it’s not about doing more, being more, seeing more.
Maybe it’s about seeing your life — clearly, deeply, unapologetically — and finally realizing…
You’re not missing out. You’re just being here.
And maybe — just maybe — that’s everything.
Your thoughts???
