{"id":78699,"date":"2025-10-24T00:06:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=78699"},"modified":"2025-10-24T00:06:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:06:55","slug":"fear-of-missing-out-between-social-brain-and-collective-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/fear-of-missing-out-between-social-brain-and-collective-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear of Missing Out: Between Social Brain and Collective Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

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You’ve probably felt it before: that distinct sensation that your phone has just vibrated in your pocket. You quickly pull it out. No notification.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another scenario: You’re going away for the weekend, determined to “disconnect.” The first few hours are pleasant. Then anxiety mounts. What’s happening on your emails? What conversations are you missing? You’re experiencing the “fear of missing out,” known by the acronym FOMO (\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Fear Of Missing Out<\/span><\/em>\u00a0\u00a0).<\/span><\/p>\n

Where does this anxiety come from? From our brains wired to seek rewards? From social pressure? From our digital habits? The answer is probably a mix of all three, but not exactly in the way we’re told.<\/span><\/p>\n

What thinkers have taught us about social anxiety<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

In 1899, economist Thorstein Veblen (1857-1929), one of the theorists\u00a0<\/span>invoked in the luxury industry<\/span><\/a>\u00a0, described “conspicuous consumption”: the aristocracy did not consume to satisfy needs, but to signal its social status. This logic generated anxiety: that of not being up to standard, of finding oneself excluded from the circle of the privileged.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the same time, the\u00a0<\/span>German philosopher Georg Simmel (1858-1918)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0extended this analysis by studying fashion. He described a tension: we simultaneously want to stand out and belong. Fashion temporarily resolves this contradiction, but at the cost of a perpetual race. As soon as a style spreads, it loses its value. This dynamic creates a system where no one is spared: the elite must constantly innovate while the rest chase codes that slip away.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1959,\u00a0<\/span>sociologist Erving Goffman (1922-1982)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0theorized our interactions as theatrical performances. We constantly manage the impression we give to others, alternating between the stage (where we play our role) and the wings (where we release the performance). His question resonates today: what happens when the wings disappear? When every moment becomes potentially documentable, shareable?<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, more recently, the\u00a0<\/span>philosopher Zygmunt Bauman (1925-2017)<\/span><\/a>\u00a0developed the concept of “liquid modernity”: in a world of infinite options, anxiety is no longer linked to deprivation, but to saturation. How can we choose when everything seems possible? How can we be sure we’ve made the right choice?<\/span><\/p>\n

These four thinkers obviously did not anticipate social networks, but they identified the deep-rooted causes of social anxiety: belonging to the right circle (Veblen), mastery of codes (Simmel), constant performance (Goffman) and the anxiety of choice (Bauman) \u2013 mechanisms that digital platforms systematically amplify.<\/span>
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