Abbreviations are omnipresent, and yet most people most likely don’t know even half of them. The dilemma: their variety is simply overwhelming. If something is funny, we say “LOL”; if we’re shocked, we use “WTF”; and if I can’t text you right now, I settle for “TTYL.” But what are these abbreviations good for anyway? Well, it’s fairly simple: we try to save time not only when writing lyrics but also when quickly communicating our emotional state. And then we have more bizarre acronyms such as FOMO, JOMO and MOMO. Stemming from the world of science, they describe the psychological behaviors explained below.
FOMO or dreadful absence
Let’s start with the most common and best known acronym: FOMO, the Fear Of Missing Out. The phrase describes our constant anxiety that others are experiencing interesting things without us. Imagine three friends ( Jonas, Simone and Victoria ), who always do everything together. But now there’s a problem: Simone and Victoria want to go to a party on Saturday night. Jonas doesn’t know if he’ll be able to make it because it’s his grandmother’s birthday. He finds himself in a dilemma as he doesn’t want to miss either event. This is what we call FOMO. Jonas is afraid of missing his grandmother’s birthday but also fears missing out if he misses the party. Today, the problem with FOMO is that social media will make Jonas feel even more excluded. He might see the odd Instagram post and think: “Why do I have to stay at home when everyone else is having such fun?” Mind you: the party probably wasn’t half as cool as social media would have us believe.
JOMO or putting self-care first
Let’s turn to FOMO’s counterpart: JOMO, the Joy Of Missing Out. JOMO describes the exhilarating feeling that comes from breaking away from a social group and following your heart’s desire. JOMO is often associated with introverts, who need more time to themselves. In our example, this would be Victoria and Simone, who leave the party early. They’re looking forward to getting home and aren’t worried about what else might happen at the party. It’s important not to confuse JOMO with anti-social behaviour, which harms others and disregards their well-being. JOMO, on the other hand, is primarily about looking after ourselves.
MOMO or the rise of a modern monster
The third phenomenon is MOMO, the Mystery Of Missing Out. It describes our anxiety that a meeting might happen without us knowing about it. This may sound familiar to some of us, as it’s one of the real downsides of social media. We don’t experience MOMO when we see events posted on social media that we’re not
involved in, but when we realize that our friends are no longer posting. We have no idea what they’re doing, so we fear being left out. We don’t know whether we’re deliberately being kept out of the(ir) loop, whether it’s the algorithm or whether our friends don’t want to spend time on their phones and instead simply decide to enjoy their evening. MOMO might be a more recent psychological phenomenon, but it’s far more widespread than we might think.
What to do when FOMO or MOMO strikes?
However easily we fall prey to MOMO or FOMO, it’s difficult to convince ourselves otherwise. So why don’t we fall back on our own priorities and principles? What matters more: spending time with friends at the movies or finishing the painting I started with my mother? The decision is always ours. It’s also probably a good idea to remind ourselves from time to time that Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like are not the elixir of life. Life goes on whether we’re on social media or not. We decide how we deal with this dependency.
How might an arts university tackle these phenomena?
FOMO might make artists fear missing out on important artistic events or trends to the detriment of their own creative process. JOMO, on the other hand, might be used to consciously go offline to free ourselves from social pressure and discover a deeper creative freedom. Students who embrace MOMO could consciously distance themselves from certain trends and instead explore the unknown and discover new, non-mainstream artistic paths. Such concepts could serve as starting points for illumining how social media affect artistic development and for exploring how to use them—consciously and inspiringly. That’s how quickly three psychological phenomena come to have great potential !