By Shane Burrell |Asst. Sports Editor|
FOMO, also known as Fear Of Missing Out, has been sweeping our nation, with everyone constantly on their social networking devices, checking e-mails, text messages and more.
But this is more than just checking your social networking, but it’s actually feeling anxiety of not checking your phone or device when you hear it go off, or actually texting or e-mailing someone that way you would have something to check.
This phenomena means so much more than the fear of missing out. It actually creates a false reality for some individuals and sometimes even produces negative effects for some.
In addition to not paying attention to what is going on in class, some text or check their social networking site while driving.
This poses a great danger to everyone, becoming distracted while behind the wheel makes for a deadly risk for injuring yourself and the people around you.
Despite the deadly dangers of FOMO, students also have a struggle with it while trying to make good grades while school is in session.
Professor Jennifer Fowlie brought this topic into light in her Gender, Sexuality and Media class.
“What do you think about media teaching the younger generation how to act?” asked Fowlie.
Many of the students gave comments on the question, although the comment that would lead the topic into another direction was from student Jason, “It teaches them to only acknowledge what is said in social media as what is accepted and therefore they don’t associate with what is going on around themselves.”
Students claimed that they had siblings and cousins that show signs of FOMO, saying that they were always on their phones at social gathering, while doing their homework and at the dinner table.
As students, we have quite a bit of trouble sitting in lecture trying to pay attention to lecture while also scrolling through our Facebook feed.
So what are some ways we can try to avoid this terrible time consuming tactic? Make sure that you phone is off and put away before class begins or use certain settings on your phone like the “do not disturb” feature for iPhone.
But what students find most effective is using a pencil and paper to take notes rather than on a laptop or iPad in order to avoid distraction.
This new phenomena is leading the way to understanding as to how and why students and those of our generation are more interested in what is going on virtually instead of what is going on around them.
But by waiting to catch up on social media and your other phone apps at a later time, you not only save relationships but save time!
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