THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA By Joshua Aman.

THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

By Joshua Aman

Social Media

Social Media is the exchange of information and ideas through all virtual networks.

Part of what fuels social media human is desire to stay in the know.

Activities such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the countless others, create a never ending source of information.

Tumblr advertises itself as “212 million different blogs filled with literally whatever.”

Claim

Social Media has the ability to exacerbate the fear of missing out. Dr Catherine Chen has been

studying how the fear of missing out may be killing you.

With millions of blogs to read, pictures to like and experiences to comment on, keeping up with it all can seem overwhelming.

The Power of Social Media extends even to politics.

What is FoMO?

FoMO stands for the Fear of Missing Out. By providing a source of constant new information, Social Media

offers what Dr Catherine Chen refers to as a “choice overload.” Dr Catherine Chen accounts for the numerous clients that go to her

overwhelmed, frustrated and unfulfilled.

Dr Catherine believes that it is our human desire to compare, which ultimately leaves human beings paralyzed with the Fear of Missing Out.

“With FoMO, you want to be everywhere doing everything. You become too busy wishing you were some place else to really enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing.” –Stephen Mariani a journalist from the HuffPost

More than not being able to put down social media FoMO can look different depending on the individual.

Can FoMO be Ovewhelming? “It's a larger problem than just missing out on a bar night

of afternoon brunch. Many people are wishing their lives away by always trying to be two places at once: where they actually are and where their friends are (via social media).” - Stephen Mariani a journalist from the HuffPost

For Zach Orman, FoMO proved to be lethal. For Zach the Fear of missing out was an obligatory fear that pushed him to high risk situations.

During his third year at the Arizona College of Medicine Zach became victim of a fatal paragliding accident.

His Father shared during his funeral how FoMO was to blame for the death of his son.

Power Over Politics

In the study “A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and mobilization” it proved that Facebook led to an additional 600,000 voters.

In the 2000 presidential election only 537 votes made the difference between the outcome.

SOLUTIONS:

Stephen Mariani in the very same article suggests how one may cope the Fear of Missing Out. “I will stop checking my phone so often when I'm out with friends,

family and my girlfriend. This way, I can truly enjoy what I'm up to rather than being dialed into what others are doing or talking about via social media.”

Dr Catherine Chen also offered some advice to dealing with the Fear of Missing Out in finding what one really wants. "The first step to getting what you want is to have the courage to

get rid of what you don't.”

Becoming secure and satisfied with where ever one is, is the truly first step to overcoming ones Fear of Missing Out.

BIO

Born in Seoul, Korea and moved to the states when I was 3 years old.

I am the middle child of five. My family has the biggest

influence on my life. I plan to be a chemical

engineer traveling around the world.

I have always wondered the effects of technology especially dealing with social media. Perhaps that was what drove me to picking this social issue.

Sources:

Chen, Catherine. The Fear of Missin Out. HuffPost, 2014. Web.18 November, 2014.

How Facebook Is Shaping Who Will Win the Next Election. Forbes, 2014. Web. 18 November, 2014

Mariani, Stephen. Overcoming The Fear Of Missing Out. HuffPost, 2014. Web. 18 November, 2014.

Przybylski, AK. “Motivational, Emotional, and Behavioral Correlates of Fear of Missing Out.” Computers in Human Behavior 29.4 (2013): 1941-1848. Web. 18 November, 2014.

Smith, Erik. “The Fear of Missing Out- A Tribute to Zach Orman.” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 24.4 (2013): 450-451. Web. 18 November, 2014.