After an extended break from blogging, I’m back!!
Since December (my last post), I’ve completed another semester of graduate school. Currently, I am beginning the third semester which presents a role as a TA, the beginning of my thesis, and work on a conference paper.
Over the summer, I did a “social media fast.” While this might sound a little silly, (and totally #firstworldproblem -ish) it is more daunting than it sounds and was eye-opening for me. There is an entire website, called The Social Media Fast, designed to encourage and enlighten those interested in social media fasting. For me, social media is what I study. I feel compelled to follow trends and hash tags, and take great pleasure in using tools like SocialGuide Intelligence to monitor Twitter conversations around prime-time television programs. Yet, for all that fun, social media consumes a great deal of my time. If we’re being honest, ‘wastes,’ may be a better verb. And this article, from Fast Company, really got me thinking. How are all of these “distractions” affecting my ability to focus on a task, read lengthy articles, or even pay attention to an in-depth conversation. So, I set out to go 7 days without using social media. For me, this meant Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. I needed to know what was happening in the world, so I still watched and read the news. And you know what? I survived. Unpleasant? Yes, especially the first few days. But when I started to think about what I was really missing, I realized that it wasn’t my ability to post witty statuses or use a cool filter on a picture of coffee, I wanted to know what the WORLD was thinking. What were they talking about? But, I read a number of books and kept myself busy, and it was pleasant. I found that my attention span increased in a matter of days, and the time; I had TONS of it. And then mid way through, when I was feeling really confident about my success, the George Zimmerman verdict was released and I has to work even harder, because all I wanted was to use Twitter as a social litmus test of sorts. Ahhh!
[Takes a deep breath] There is a term for what I was feeling, and a body of researchers are studying young adults just like me. It’s called Fear of Missing Out, or more colloquially, FoMO. A Mashable article refers to a recent MyLife.com survey which suggests that “56% of people are afraid of missing out on events, news and important status updates if they are away from social networks.” YIKES! Internet addiction, much?
If you’re interested in measuring your FoMO, take this quick test. The results may surprise you.
{artfully atypical} 