FOMO- The new disease in the block! Time to Say Good Bye!

The first thing I look upon when I wake up is to check my cell phone for any message and I jump out of my bed and get ready for a coffee with my morning newspaper. Inadvertently, my hands reach to the iThing around… Be it the iPad, iPhone or the nearest laptop, and my poor wireless blinks at me with tiring looks. Yeap, probably I would have shut it down just a few hours ago forcing myself to sleep.

The morning newspaper gives me its hate look… with all the dirty news of the world these days we are forced to chew in…
Accidents, political big wigs shamelessly screwing each other, children forgotten in cars,  parents committing suicide along with their innocent children, and women getting raped time and again, gang raped be her a child of 3 or a grand mom of 80, all they need is a hole to screw…  
Shameless perverts who roam around in this world even after such worst crimes.   

Then runs my eyes to the new movies page, which I usually don’t watch, and to the new restaurants advertisements that I scroll through… Of course, I do make time for this and what attracts me the most is the happenings in my City- yes, Events!   For they help me to plan my “out of work & home” hours, as if it were another 8 hour routine in my life every week. Forget about the reminders from the secretary of the clubs I am associated with, sends me frequently about the meetings- General Body, Executive Committee and Projects… Yeah… >Projects Everywhere!

Amidst all this going on, I still feel the vacuum!  Is this a depressing condition?  I asked my doctor one day.    He says that my body and brain are fighting with each other and  my brain is not letting the body rest… Why is this so? 

I used to sit quietly and meditate for long. Laze on a weekend siesta with an old book, just to re-read the pages I loved… or just look around and do nothing, but give space for words to write my most cherished poems.  But in the last couple of years, things have changed.   When I feel vacuumed!  Seemingly left with nothing to do after finishing everything I “HAD” to do… I take the interesting part of every one’s lives today, the drama of the day to unfold.  What’s happening in the other people’s lives?   Who is going where?  What is that they got today?  Where are they heading to for the weekend?  Who is celebrating their birthday today …or who is having a sick moment, where I can hop in and say a regular Hello!

From the time Face Book took over people’s life, agriculture became virtual Farmville, and Twitter became Flash News and LinkedIn became permanent open live resume, Orkut became the first death in the social media, hotmail nailed underneath leaving behind yahoo and Gmail to take over and online banking became the mode of trade… My pages on poem hunter became my live storage of my scribbling uneasy lyrics, and eventually my blog became my outlet, an open diary and a solace… I am for sure most of us are suffering from the new disease - FOMO- the Fear of Missing Out!

Even people who were once upon a time, with “Who Cares” attitude, today silently watches the social media space and enjoy the fun of the drams unfolding on everyone’s walls each day.  

These silent sneekers are the people who do not post anything or comment on anyone’s posts, but who turn out to be the most frequent visitors, who are keeping track of everyone. 

Those who frequently post, find this as a medium of outlet or take this as a comfort factor that there is a whole world out there to share your life day after day… right from buying a fish, sleeping in the noon to organizing a event and being part of a larger cause…they type, they forget and leave the news for the rest of the world to eat the way they want to…like a banquet dinner to chew!   There are few people who still worry about the privacy of the information shared and keep it very restricted. Probably they are the one’s who are very cautious of the good-bad internet world and they actually enjoy a right balance of information, fun and the cyber space.  

Companies and Employers are keeping a close watch on the social media activity of the employees… Today it is made as part of the business conduct, that what you post is your responsibility and not that of your employers and advices for a social responsibility to whatever you vent in the free virtual world that is not completely organized and controlled.

However, it is very important to keep track of what you do and what you share.   One thing is frequent, posting good pictures is causing jealousy amongst our own set of family and friends… For those who are mostly indoors, feel left out when friends post pictures of vacations and out door activity.  Sometimes, frequent updates from few people irritate us as if they are over boarding us with unnecessary information.  Few updates are very knowledge oriented and welcomed by many.  Few events keep us informed and educative.  They make each one of us think

The quotations and moral messages come in every day from every corner of the world.  Even if few inspire us and follow even few of them, our lives will change for good.

Above all,   it is time to stop – the Fear of Missing Out

• Students are losing out on their study time to the time on internet
• Employees are getting distracted during their working hours on the stuff that is not so important to work
• Friends are feeling jealous and envious at time, and breaking relationships
• Families are getting united, at the same time frustrations are getting on top and creating havoc in most unexpected turn of events
• Communal violence and protests are sparking up with the wrong motivations and communities targeting all sides to influence those who are weak and vulnerable
• Humor is finding its new place and lot of things of things are educating people in terms of cartoon, same time it should not go over the thin line of control…as long as no body is targeted, insulted and injured in this process….social media will remain a blessing

 As we control the fear of missing out, we get to be more cautious about the time we spend on useless surfing, spending on unwanted search engines…and being excited on staying connected through any of the channels. Be it Face Book, Emails, Twitter, LinkedIn, Whatsapp! Tumbler, Hi5 or Instagram!.  

The first step:  Decided to spend just 15 minutes every day on personal mails, 15 mins of social media and spend rest of the day in old style…going out and talking to people than on SMS and phone,  playing games outdoor than on Xbox….chatting with neighbors’ over the real walls,   pruning a little garden than planting trees in Farmville,  and above all taking time for a cause than to support with 1000 likes on a face book page…and make the best use of  internet time to get out of this nonsense FOMO -   I will not let any disease to take over me. 

Defiantly FOMO-  Its time for you to GO!

Note:  All pictures are taken from Internet! Any copy right issues, please let me know-  Umasree Raghunath