FOMO

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About

FOMO is an acronym for "fear of missing out," a type of social anxiety in which a person feels as if they are missing an important experience or opportunity.

Origin

"FOMO" was coined by marketing strategist Dan Herman in a paper titled "FOMO, the ailment of our cultural movement" published in the Journal of Brand Management in 2000.^[5]

Spread

On May 10th, 2004, the Harvard news website Harbus Online^[6] published an article titled "Social Theory at HBS: McHinnis' Two FOs," which compared FOMO to FOBO (fear of a better option). On October 2nd, 2006, Urban Dictionary^[2] user Beaqon submitted an entry for "Fomo." On November 18th, 2008, the CitysearchAustralia YouTube channel uploaded an ad which promoted a search engine as a cure for FOMO (shown below).

On April 9th, 2011, the New York Times^[4] published an article about social anxiety caused by social media platforms. On May 16th, 2013, The Telegraph^[3] published an article about FOMO, which cited a psychological study that found those who experienced the anxiety the most didn't have their "basic psychological needs" met. On May 20th, CollegeHumor released a parody trailer for a horror movie about FOMO (shown below). In the first year, the video gained over 1.1 million views and 1,800 comments.

On October 16th, 2014, CNN aired a segment on teens who experience FOMO through excessive social media use (shown below).