The Fear of Missing Out
What a tragedy
Admit it, the world has just too many things out there — places you want to go; things you want to do, experience; people you want to hang out with. Your primary school mates, secondary school mates, junior college school mates, your dance buddies, and random groups you’ve met through the years that spam WhatsApp with:
“We should meet up soon!”
What a tragedy, humans have so many things to do yet no time to do them all. Random Facebook video, laugh, share. A hilarious retweet, laugh, retweet. Reddit /r/funny, laugh, up-vote. There’s so much to do online! Crazy Vines, a whole smorgasbord of Snapchats, Tumblr scroll scroll scroll. Youtube videos that absorb you — Let’s plays, Bob Ross, educational youtubers, reaction videos, music videos. The good, the funny, the touching, the weird. How to watch them all?
You have to study? Good luck. With that.
You have to work? Good luck. With that.
You have kids to take care of? Good luck. With that.
We have made ourselves more absorbed than ever, busier than ever. We have to constantly be on our toes, to let information rush into our dopamine-driven brains, from fear of missing out. We put things on our to-do-list faster than we strike them off, resulting in a perpetual increasing list that never, and will never, end.
But what a tragedy, because let me tell you this — you can’t keep up. Stop trying and dial down, you don’t need all of this. Really, you don’t. What’s worthy of your attention will eventually get to you one way or another. Not knowing all of these is not going to detract the experience of life from you once you know how to prioritize.
Hey this is a good book! You should go read it!
Really?
This will be the best movie you will watch! The ending will break you.
*sigh*
This article will change your life, I swear.
God dammit.
What a tragedy, indeed.
Hey! Thank you for reading. This is just my brain dump on how much our lives have changed and it is getting more and more apparent and I am starting to feel the overwhelmce (I just made up that word). This article is orginally published on Medium, 28 Nov 2015.
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