6. THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT(cont‟d.)The acronym is infiltrating vocabularies as more than just an amusing expression.FOMO encapsulates an increasingly pronounced phenomenon in the age of socialmedia—an ageless concept that‟s reached a tipping point. Today‟s unprecedentedawareness of how others are living their lives is predisposing more and morepeople to FOMO.While the fear of missing out has always been essential for marketers tounderstand, it‟s grown more significant for brands, since today‟s intensifiedFOMO drives behaviors on social media sites and, subsequently, real-worldconsumer actions and self-perceptions. FOMO is the sometimes energizing, sometimes terrifying anxiety that you are missing out on something absolutely terrific. It could be a TV show, it could be a party, gadget, it could be that really good burrito from the food cart. The important thing to keep in mind with FOMO is that it‟s not just a state of mind; it is also a physical reaction. So as a FOMO sufferer, I can report sweating, itching, pacing and compulsiverefreshing of my Twitter feed.” —BIANCA BOSKER, senior technology editor, The Huffington Post
.