This weekend, I was invited to a housewarming party. At the time of receiving the invitation, I was sporting leggings on their fourth day of wear and the greasiest hair this side of KFC. Did I want to leave the house? Did I heck. I had a busy day of doing nothing planned and there was room for very little else in my schedule.
Pulling my duvet up to my chin, I closed my eyes and basked in the glory of freedom. No plans! No social pressure! The opportunity to eat two consecutive bowls of pasta bake and watch endless Netflix without judgement! This, I thought, is living.
And then it hit. A niggling worm of doubt gnawed its way to my brain and knocked loudly on the door.
"You should go to that party!" it boomed obnoxiously. "Be sociable, talk to other people, act like a functioning member of society for once! Who knows, you might like it!"
"Bugger off, FOMO!" my lazy subconscious yelled, but by then it was too late. The idea that my flatmates might have too much fun without me was planted, and it grew like a weed. 20 minutes before they planned to leave I was rubbing half a pan of concealer into my neck and asking whether I should bring one bottle of wine or two.
FOMO (or fear of missing out, for the abbreviation avoidant) is often declared to be an all consuming and ultimately damaging compulsion - Wikipedia defines it as 'a form of social anxiety' and the Telegraph tells tales of exhausted, emotionally fraught twenty-somethings who spend their whole weekends travelling to events that they ultimately miss the best bits of, because of their frantic urge to seek out the new must-do. But in my case, FOMO got my indulgent, wallowing self out of bed and out to an enjoyable party where I met new people, drank too much punch and ultimately had a more enjoyable time than I would have by myself sat at home in an oversized jumper and spandex - and for that reason, I think he might have got a bit of a bad rap.
Scrolling through Instagram and watching your friends/stalkees eat incredible food, travel to gorgeous places and spend time with clever, interesting people can be depressing when your only company for the day is a family-size bag of Kettle Chips - but for the most part, there's nothing to stop you going out there and seeing what they're seeing too. As with everything in life, there is a limit, and people will inevitably cross it - some to the point where they're desperately sobbing into their Facebook events calendar with the ferocity of a small tsunami. Some opportunities are admittedly constrained by time, location and budget. But there is a difference between being afraid of missing out on fun and feeling inferior because other people are having a different type of fun to you - and the former is something you can take control of.
Sometimes FOMO forces you to say yes to events you're glad you went to, meet strangers that might become pals, and consume questionable gin based cocktails that miraculously leave you hangover free. I'm not suggesting you say yes to everything, but saying yes a little more never hurt. So let's all start embracing FOMO - give him a little cuddle and see where things go. You never know, it might just be the start of a beautiful friendship.
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