FOMO- Fear Of Missing Out!

On vacation, pictures, life and much more.

6th October 2023, 11.37 pm- seated in front of my laptop gently tapping the screaming impulse to write something. It has been two weeks no around four weeks (time flies) since I am back from the vacation I planned a week before leaving. I have read two books since then. Exercised for merely three days because for that I could find easy excuses. And somehow managed to reach my job on time daily.

It’s astonishing to see what a 6-days vacation does to you. It modifies your skin tint. Blesses you with lively flashbacks even when you are engaged in medicine preparations. And literally makes you inert for most days.

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During the vacation, I took around one thousand pictures. And spent time worried about saving my phone battery to capture the perfect sunset- classic this generation's problem! Now, while listening to ‘kya be Munna tu bhi sudhar gya’, I try to contemplate what that worry was actually for. Although I have come back with a thousand photos from my vacation, I have posted merely ten on my Instagram. Have shown probably fifty to my mother. Shared a few with my best friend. For my convenience, I have added a few pictures to my favourite and have seen only them on repeat.

I know that all pictures are not for social media, some are for memories also. Believe me, I am ingrained with all moral insights. Here, I am reflecting upon that desire to get pictures which turned into a fear of missing out. What was that fuss all about? To capture what, the fear of missing what? What could have I possibly missed?

Likewise in life, we are constantly running after collecting things. Money, material, success, vengeance, wrath, love joy, despair - we hold it all. Not ready to quit on anything. For what and whom? The answers may vary. But at what cost? If constant worry is the answer, we need to introspect into it.

Also, I have not deleted the other pictures yet for I fear losing any good pictures. It’s strange why we want to keep everything. Why is it so difficult to let things go? Why are we fearing losing so much? And this mere obsession is what for? Pictures? Remember, that scene from YJHD, where Bunny asks Naina to hurry up warna wo Dhansu light show miss ho Jayega? Literally, that feel.

We live with the constant fear of missing something desirable. But isn’t it also true that in this era of social media, nobody is actually missing out on anything? We have too much of everything instead. Perhaps in the quest to overcome the FOMO (fear of missing out), we have come up with YOLO (you only live once). And apart from the accessibility to information, what has grown exponentially is our insatiety. Congrats our generation will never have enough of anything. Seriously imagine having a life full of pictures as memories, but no content. A bucket of desires so huge that it could never be filled up to the brim.

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Maybe it is the weight of carrying those desires all through that has left me weary. Being in Bunny’s shoes is tough. It can be exciting but it’s equally exhausting. I am usually Naina so I am not really used to carrying these many desires all around. At 00.00 on 7th October, I happily accepted my fate as Naina. It can be immensely dull and boring but it is so much peaceful.

I have never seen Naina and Bunny as lovers or two different people. But, two ranges of conflicts within us. Two character shades within one person. Two different stages we grow through in life. Bunny is our wild heart. In Hindi, we say it better ‘chanchal mann’. He is full of life and the zeal to explore, afraid to miss out on anything. Naina is our conscience who is always right but insecure- continuously seeking validation from others.

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I hope you feel me. I know you feel me. Some of us feel this way. Some of us struggle to fit into the era. Not everyone though. I don’t think many are even aware enough to mull over what social media is doing to us. Also, there is nothing wrong with taking pictures. Take millions of pictures if your data storage allows you to. What’s harmful is that anxious feeling, that constant fear of missing out on things we live with. The desires that has let us prioritise pictures over people. To put our camera lens before our natural lens- eyes. We are ready to lose the view from our eyes but not from the camera. It is scary.

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It is okay to miss out on things in life. It is okay to miss the sunset capture. It’s okay to lose things. It’s okay not to have a bucket list. It’s okay to be right in this moment. As Naina said," “Jitna bhi try krlo Bunny life mein kuch na kuch to chutega hi. Toh jahan hai wahin ka mazza lete hain.”

Here are some pictures from the same vacation. And yes, not all pictures were taken worrying about missing out on things. Worry makes me anxious and I don’t hold that for long.

Aakanksha.