This morning, on the CBS morning news show I like to watch, they started talking about FOMO, just casually using the term. I'm sure I'm showing my age and lack of knowledge of current ideas here, but I had no idea what they were talking about. So of course I googled it. It turns out FOMO is Fear of Missing Out and it can lead to some serious mental stress. I can understand how this fear can develop. Just a quick glance at Facebook shows me beautiful children in darling outfits, beautiful homes, especially if a remodeling project is going on, beautiful food eaten in excellent restaurants, pictures from amazing vacations, and of course the world's best behaved, cutest pets.
Back in the olden days we might have envied life styles we saw on TV, but we knew it was make believe. No one's mother that I knew wore heels and pearls to clean house like Beaver's mother. And, as I learned on my senior class trip, not everyone in New York City dressed like a fashion model.
I think the difference today must be that you personally know (usually) the people who are posting these amazing glimpses of their perfect lives, so if they can have it, why can't I? If they can do it, why not me? I am seriously glad I'm not a teenager these days. Peer pressure was alive and well in my youth, but the pressures weren't anything like what teens experience now.
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