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Mental health is shaped less by what is happening and more by how it is held. The fear of missing out (FOMO) interrupts this holding.
Social media fosters comparison, affecting mental health.
A quick scroll through social media rarely feels harmful. The updates are familiar – friends celebrating milestones, colleagues sharing achievements, acquaintances posting snapshots of trips and nights out. Yet, beneath the curated moments, there’s a quiet shift taking place. The more we watch, the more we compare, and the less our own pace feels enough.
“Social media was designed for connection. It now sets the tone for comparison,” says Pritika Singh. What once was a space to share updates has become a silent benchmark for how life should look. A casual scroll through curated moments – celebrations, milestones, perfect frames – can slowly start to chip away at how people feel about their own pace, story, and success.
The shift is subtle. “The fear of missing out doesn’t strike sharply – it builds gradually,” Singh explains. Before you notice it, you’re measuring your days against a highlight reel, not your reality.
The Pressure to Perform Presence
In the age of updates, visibility has become currency. The best angles, the noteworthy achievements, the most exciting nights out – these moments dominate our feeds. “Quiet days start to feel like missed opportunities,” Singh observes. Without realising it, people start showing up for things they don’t enjoy, or staying in conversations that drain them, simply to maintain a sense of presence.
“It’s not the event that’s missed that bothers most people – it’s what they imagine that absence signals to others,” she says. Silence, once neutral, now feels like invisibility.
Closeness or the Illusion of It?
More contact doesn’t always mean a deeper connection. Singh points out that the constant stream of updates leaves little room for showing doubt, boredom, or vulnerability – flattening even the most genuine bonds. “Across all ages, the pattern repeats,” she says. “There’s conversation, but less listening. The rhythm becomes mechanical instead of meaningful.”
Fatigue Without a Crisis
Singh warns that the emotional wear-and-tear of FOMO rarely looks like a crisis – it’s a slow erosion. Difficulty sleeping, low-grade irritability, and a restless sense of being ‘behind’ all point to the same source: constant comparison.
“FOMO builds through repetition. It’s the drip effect – one more post, one more pang of restlessness, one more social obligation,” she explains. “It wears people down without them realising it.”
Drawing the Line: Online and Offline
Stepping back from the endless scroll isn’t about rejection – it’s about reclaiming attention. “Limiting comparison isn’t withdrawal; it’s care,” says Singh. That might mean letting a message wait until morning, attending fewer events, or allowing moments to pass without photographing them.
“These are not grand gestures, but they’re powerful,” she says. “They make space for reflection, and they reduce the pressure to perform.”
Choosing Missing Out, On Purpose
Singh stresses that FOMO isn’t just a digital problem; it’s a cultural one. To address it, emotional awareness needs to be part of digital literacy. “People need to know how algorithms shape mood and how comparison changes self-worth,” she says.
Missing out is not a sign of failure. It is part of living with intention. There will always be another event, another story, another announcement. There is no shortage of things to witness. What remains limited is attention, energy, and emotional space.
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Delhi, India, India
