FOMO — Getting Real About The Highlight Reel | The Millennial Edit
Seeing the adventures of our musical peers on social media can be both inspirational and demoralizing at the same time, especially from the depths of a lonely practice room. In this edition of the tonebase blog, Rosie Bennet flips the switch on FOMO and explains how to experience the ‘joy’ of missing out instead!
By now we are probably all familiar with the term ‘FOMO’ a mnemonic born out of the era of social media — ‘Fear Of Missing Out’.
It is a term that has been recognized as having psychological significance, it is what makes social media so problematic in terms of our self esteem, the fear that in comparison to others’ lives we are missing something out that we feel is significant in our living experience.
It is perhaps primarily a condition that exists because of the new importance that social media brings to mundane events of our lives; adding high definition, a sparkling color base and a plethora of likes and comments to something often as boring as a grocery shop.
In a world where we equate popularity directly with importance, at times we need to watch where our FOMO is leading us, whether it is something we genuinely feel we lack, or whether instead we are, to a certain degree, being emotionally influenced (the job description doesn’t come from nowhere).
As musicians we require a lot of time alone in order to study and to process our work.
Our gatherings and celebrations are conducted in hours of silence, listening as quietly as possible. In our free time we must listen as much as possible, gathering knowledge from texts, searching for information.
On the flip side of this, when we are eventually in a position to meet people, we must come across friendly, approachable, we must talk with ease about what we do, we must seem grateful and carefree.
It is no surprise then that many musicians count themselves as introverts.
In my experience, even the artists who appear wonderfully open and outgoing, are often introverts who have been ‘extroverted’ by the nature of the job importance in networking.
Life of the intricate worker is tiring enough without the hassle of FOMO hanging on our tails. Should we really feel guilty for the fact that there are things we are missing out on?
As soon as we start to realize that it is only societal constructs that are causing us to believe we are missing out on a life experience, we free ourselves from FOMO.
We must try better to engage with our real feelings towards our actions.
Are there things we don’t like about what we do? Are there ways we can filter out the things that we don’t enjoy?
Ultimately, decoding our emotions towards the things we do in life will lead us to a better lived experience, and one that fits our tastes instead of the tastes dictated to us by popularity.
As for social media — Is there a way we can appreciate our enjoyment of living only vicariously through some life experiences?
Of course! Move over FOMO, let’s start seeing through the highlights of social media and start enjoying not just what we have, but what we are missing out on (which, when it comes to festivals, is usually contents of a toilet where they shouldn’t be!).
Time for a bit of JOMO — Joy Of Missing Out!
About Rosie Bennet
Born in London in 1996, Rosie started playing guitar at age seven. She received her early musical education at The Yehudi Menuhin School of Music and went on to study with Zoran Dukic (The Hague, NL), Johan Fostier (Tilburg, NL), Rene Izquierdo (Milwaukee, USA) and Raphaella Smits (Leuven, BE). She has performed in festivals all over Europe, including Open Guitar Festival in Křivoklát, Czech Republic, Glasgow’s Big Guitar Weekend, Scotland, Porziano Music Festival, Italy and the West Dean guitar Festival, UK. Highlights of her concert career include performances at Wigmore Hall, London, The North Wall, Oxford and concerts given on El Camino De Santiago.
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