FOMO: fear of missing out

There is always something in the air that's getting us down. August was Malaria month, October was Dengue, and of course the epidemic to end all epidemics- Ebola! Or so you think. Allow me to introduce you to the new disease in town: FOMO! Trust me, yes, even the manic self-diagnosers amongst you may have missed it. You, with the lifetime membership to WebMD- I'm talking to you, boy are you in for a surprise.

While we were all busy with our Starbucks-fuelled supersized lives, something insidious was settling down, for the long haul, in our collective consciousness; the irrational fear of missing out on the next big- thing, gadget, fashion statement, restaurant or destination wedding. This is a case of 'keeping up with the Joneses' on steroids. It's about doing everything cool, with everyone cool, at everywhere that's cool, all the time.
The first to present symptoms were the 20-somethings. Somewhere between spilling out of college, grabbing our jobs, and treadmill spots, they got exposed to the then nascent FOMO virus. It was impossible for them not to be 'where it's at'. Check any of your social media feeds and they're there hashtagging blue skies, gourmet meals , hybridizing names (eg: #Brangelina or #AbhiAsh) The ultimate money shot is of course the - mealy pictures from the destination wedding . Grouped together like penguins on an especially cold Antarctic night, brandishing shot glasses, in all their beautiful taught bodied, coiffed hair glory! They made it impossible to not fear missing out.

The fall out was inevitable. Normal is just not what we do anymore. FOMO is as infectious as a Pitbull song and as deadly. People in contact with the contagion exhibit frantic behavior-it's all about extreme sports, extreme fashion (colour blocking) extreme travel (I have friends who have memorized flight routes, connections and code share like it was the times table) and extreme appetites. Notice how no one eats regular food anymore. It's always some micro biotic fusion of starch, acid and protein that gets painted on to a plate, hash tagged and sent to the four corners of the earth producing equal measures of envy and…you got it FOMO. Never mind that the dime sized portion of Wagyu, our gastronome broke his bank for, won't satisfy his appetite, and he is at this moment back in his suite watching pay per view while masticating a club sandwich (MASTICATING, not what you thought it was, you perv) No one wants to miss out, our egos are too fragile to allow that; cost no bar!

It is the century of conspicuous consumption, and I am all for 'to boldly go where no man has gone before' first. It builds bridges, which makes this planet a far friendlier place to live in than it possibly ever was. New experiences are the stuff of life and growth. Please do Carpe your Diem with as much gusto as you can expend, live the biggest version of your life you can live. You have but one, unless you're Hindu, in which case tone it down a notch, karma being a b**** and all. I'm going to sit this one out, I just got over a bad case of the #flu so you'll find me #inbed #doingnothing #simpleliving #noFOMO