1. THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA By Joshua Aman

2. Social Media  Social Media is the exchange of information and ideas through all virtual networks.  Part of what fuels social media human is desire to stay in the know.  Activities such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the countless others, create a never ending source of information.  Tumblr advertises itself as “212 million different blogs filled with literally whatever.”

3. Claim  Social Media has the ability to exacerbate the fear of missing out.  Dr Catherine Chen has been studying how the fear of missing out may be killing you.  With millions of blogs to read, pictures to like and experiences to comment on, keeping up with it all can seem overwhelming.  The Power of Social Media extends even to politics.

4. What is FoMO?  FoMO stands for the Fear of Missing Out.  By providing a source of constant new information, Social Media offers what Dr Catherine Chen refers to as a “choice overload.”  Dr Catherine Chen accounts for the numerous clients that go to her overwhelmed, frustrated and unfulfilled.  Dr Catherine believes that it is our human desire to compare, which ultimately leaves human beings paralyzed with the Fear of Missing Out.  “With FoMO, you want to be everywhere doing everything. You become too busy wishing you were some place else to really enjoy whatever it is that you’re doing.” –Stephen Mariani a journalist from the HuffPost  More than not being able to put down social media FoMO can look different depending on the individual.

5. Can FoMO be Ovewhelming?  “It's a larger problem than just missing out on a bar night of afternoon brunch. Many people are wishing their lives away by always trying to be two places at once: where they actually are and where their friends are (via social media).” - Stephen Mariani a journalist from the HuffPost  For Zach Orman, FoMO proved to be lethal. For Zach the Fear of missing out was an obligatory fear that pushed him to high risk situations.  During his third year at the Arizona College of Medicine Zach became victim of a fatal paragliding accident.  His Father shared during his funeral how FoMO was to blame for the death of his son.

6. Power Over Politics  In the study “A 61-million- person experiment in social influence and mobilization” it proved that Facebook led to an additional 600,000 voters.  In the 2000 presidential election only 537 votes made the difference between the outcome.

7. SOLUTIONS:  Stephen Mariani in the very same article suggests how one may cope the Fear of Missing Out.  “I will stop checking my phone so often when I'm out with friends, family and my girlfriend. This way, I can truly enjoy what I'm up to rather than being dialed into what others are doing or talking about via social media.”  Dr Catherine Chen also offered some advice to dealing with the Fear of Missing Out in finding what one really wants.  "The first step to getting what you want is to have the courage to get rid of what you don't.”  Becoming secure and satisfied with where ever one is, is the truly first step to overcoming ones Fear of Missing Out.

8. BIO  Born in Seoul, Korea and moved to the states when I was 3 years old.  I am the middle child of five.  My family has the biggest influence on my life.  I plan to be a chemical engineer traveling around the world.  I have always wondered the effects of technology especially dealing with social media. Perhaps that was what drove me to picking this social issue.

9. Sources:  Chen, Catherine. The Fear of Missin Out. HuffPost, 2014. Web.18 November, 2014.  How Facebook Is Shaping Who Will Win the Next Election. Forbes, 2014. Web. 18 November, 2014  Mariani, Stephen. Overcoming The Fear Of Missing Out. HuffPost, 2014. Web. 18 November, 2014.  Przybylski, AK. “Motivational, Emotional, and Behavioral Correlates of Fear of Missing Out.” Computers in Human Behavior 29.4 (2013): 1941-1848. Web. 18 November, 2014.  Smith, Erik. “The Fear of Missing Out- A Tribute to Zach Orman.” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine 24.4 (2013): 450-451. Web. 18 November, 2014.