College Students are Suffering from FOMO: Let’s Help them not Surrender
Technology and the internet gave us opportunities that we could not foresee just a decade ago. Endless opportunities!
Together with this rose the desire and urge for doing and achieving as much as possible, and for having as many experiences as possible.
Interconnected with both, social media evolved tremendously. It offered us quick communication, and quick access to information, photos, videos, and other people’s lives.
Thanks to social media, today you can see every corner of the party you did not attend, see your friends’ meals in the dinner you missed, and see all your surroundings doing better than you.
Or it seems so through the lenses of Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and other social media platforms where people [commonly] post their finest moments.
Now, you are left alone with your Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).
In this blog, we will discuss what #FOMO is, and how social media triggers it. We dedicate an important part of this blog to how college students experience FOMO, and how they can overcome it.
We will hear from College of DuPage (COD) students, and Peter Deeman, Academic Advisor at COD, who talks exclusively about the connection between social media and feelings of FOMO.
He further talks about the impacts that FOMO has on individuals and explains how that all can change.
YOU can listen to the full podcast in the following link. From 14:29 Deeman shares his call for action with college students and young people in general.
What FOMO is and how Social Media Fuels it
In a nutshell, FOMO is the continuous feeling that others are having rewarding and meaningful moments, in which one is absent or missing out.
This fear is associated with a strong attachment to social media platforms which makes people fear they are missing out on a potentially great event.
To better understand #FOMO and its close correlation with social media check out this short video too.
FOMO in College Students: Hard to Ignore, Harder to Combat
College students are an extremely vulnerable group negatively impacted by FOMO. Social media platforms significantly increased the alert state in which college students live today.
Our own experiences, our interviews with COD students, and several thorough pieces of research back this statement.
According to a study published in October 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Paul McKee of Southern Connecticut State University, USA, and colleagues, higher levels of FOMO predict greater engagement in academic misconduct, alcohol drinking, illegal drug use, and other illegal behaviors as well.
With 472 participants, this two-part study specifically highlights that FOMO was significantly associated with higher rates of plagiarism (before and during college), cheating (before college), and giving away illegal drugs (in college).
Additionally, the study found, higher FOMO was significantly associated with higher rates of depressant use, stimulant use, cannabis use, and hallucinogen use.
#FOMO also predicted earlier age beginning alcohol consumption.
COD Students Share Personal Journeys in Battling FOMO
Narrowing our discussion, in the video below, three COD students talk about their #FOMO and how social media triggers it for them and their peers.
The end of the video brings to you the personal journey of the international student at COD, Adem Bislimi, and how he combats #FOMO.
Everyone Believes FOMO is Real: Now What?
With the aim to hear from more people, we published two Twitter Polls, which show similar results and thoughts on FOMO to what we have seen so far.
We asked if FOMO is real among college students. On this, 70% responded Yes, 25% said FOMO is a serious issue, and 5% responded No.
From 20 participants, no one believes FOMO is a hoax.
So far, from different sources, we could clearly see that people acknowledge that #FOMO is something worth discussing and also no one [as our polls show] believes #FOMO it’s a hoax.
Let’s not Surrender: What Can YOU do?
Listed below are the most common ways FOMO manifests itself, such as: always saying yes, feeling negative or down when you miss out, poor health behaviors, and high social media activity.
Now you are aware of what #FOMO is and its negative impacts, you can move on to the next step of doing something about this.
Help yourself, and others to overcome FOMO by:
· Recognizing your FOMO
· Stopping and Breathing
· Remember: Not everything in social media is real
· Don’t compare yourself to others
· Seeking out real conversations
· Considering a Social Media Detox (on your own terms).
What Else can YOU do?
If you are a COD student suffering from FOMO, click HERE to make an appointment for a meeting with a personal counselor. Counseling is available to admitted COD students at no additional cost.
If you are a college student enrolled somewhere else, please consider checking your college resources, talking to a trusted friend, and never underestimate the power of a walk in nature.
If you feel like we can help you, please reach out to us. Our contact details are below.
Also, here’s our Wakelet Collection in this topic, where we focused more on how to overcome #FOMO.
#FOMO #CollegeStudents #SocialMedia #COD #MentalHealth
This piece and other original materials in it are produced for the Social Media as News Class, lectured by Professor Joseph Goldberg at College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
In the following link see our Wakelet collection on the same topic.
Students’ names in alphabetical order are:
Jordyn Barnhart
Nick Sum.
