Is FOMO making it impossible for you to study over summer?

Daljinder Johal is here to help you sort out your studies and social life over the holidays…

We’re just starting what one of my old teachers fondly called a “study holiday”; wistfully known as the summer holidays, instead actually a time for preparing for all those upcoming essays of the new term. But how many of us are really taking studying seriously? If you just felt a stab of guilt in response, it turns out that you’re not alone.

Recently, 2000 UK respondents were surveyed by Ladbrokes to analyse the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on the nation as a whole. Hence, the most unsurprising discovery of all time: 18-24 year olds suffer the most. In fact, 68% say they feel like they’re missing out if they can’t make it to a social event. But should we really be feeling like this? It’s not even a rare occurrence – the majority of this group (26%) admit this happens about once a fortnight, but a further 22% say they feel this weekly.

…statistics show that 18-24 year olds spend a shocking £90.54 a week just on social events by going out, on average, 1.8 times!

Unfortunately, I too have experienced this feeling. Like 37%, I admit to attending an event that I shouldn’t have because of it. I often attempt to convince myself that attending parties strengthens friendships or creates a wider network and that these connections can even prove to be useful later on in your career. I must admit to having to dash from a careers event after a long day on campus to predrinks with one group only to go out with another group. But the problem occurs when this happens too often. It seems that the resultant stress is far worse than feeling slightly left out for an hour. University life is brilliant for bringing together such a diverse group of people from varying backgrounds, but when students already seem to juggle many commitments, it’s risky adding to the mix. Even if there are benefits to maintaining an active social life, it is clear that this pressure can have a significantly negative effect on the health of our careers, bodies and minds.

Moreover, students aren’t exactly known for being flush with cash. Yet, statistics show that 18-24 year olds spend a shocking £90.54 a week just on social events by going out, on average, 1.8 times.  But it is perhaps more worrying that a quarter (22%) admit to borrowing money in order to attend a social event. That’s a lot of money to spend a week.

There are some methods to minimise the chance of the green-eyed monster rearing its head – with just a few clicks.

Perhaps the major cause here is social media.  Nearly a quarter of 18-24 year olds (22%) find that it’s the biggest cause of feeling like they’re missing out. Nearly half (47%) also said the photos and comments make them feel even worse about being left out. As Dutch student Zilla van den Born recently demonstrated with her internet-famous social experiment of faking a five week trip to South East Asia on Facebook, so many of us are affected by social media. There are some methods to minimise the chance of the green-eyed monster rearing its head – with just a few clicks, filter the type of posts and notifications that you see on Facebook. Another option is to unfollow people while still remaining friends. This avoids being bombarded with images of trips abroad and parties. Also, rather than scanning through twitter yourself, there’s plenty of apps or online services that can send you summaries of tweets catered to your interests. When it comes to overbooking yourself for events, I’ve even found that keeping a brief colour-coded diary of events and costs is essential for a visual remainder to keep a work-life balance.

But whether your issue is similar to mine, or simply finding yourself overly stressed, it does seem that FOMO isn’t as harmless as it first seems. There’s a real need for us to identify our personal weak spots to find a way to reduce its effect on our health and bank balance.

Statistics: Ladbrokes