How FOMO got overthrown by FOGO – and what we can do about it
There is little doubt that the phrase FOMO — Fear Of Missing Out — has become a behavioral trademark of our frantic cultural mood. Few things seem to steer our social existence as much as the fear of not necessarily missing, but rather being overlooked by the dynamic flow of organized activities, events, and experiences. For years if not decades, and noticeably accelerated with the advent of digitalization, FOMO wasn’t prompted by an intrinsic desire to constantly be everywhere, at once. If it may have become internalized as a craving, all it did in fact was harbor collective insecurity — and an entrenched, cultivated pressure to be continuously part of the society of spectacle. Needless to remind, things have taken quite a U-turn in the past year, and now that the world appears to be reopening, the FOMO phenomenon has nearly evaporated, leaving room for its anxious, introverted cousin — FOGO (Fear Of Going Out).
