A NEW acronym has been coined.

Forget YoLo (You only Live once), welcome to FoMo – Fear of Missing Out. It's that feeling we all have from time to time – that there is you, and there is this other world which we'll call The Action.

You and The Action rarely meet. The Action always seems to be elsewhere, somewhere you are not.

It's a feeling that we can have acutely on a Monday morning when someone asks "How was your weekend?" and a vision of the garden centre and a trip to the dump swims into your mind, while your colleague, not waiting for an answer, has leapt straight into "Amsterdam was cool, but it was tough getting the flight at six this morning – particularly after the night we'd just had."

Should you mention the new range of meerkat statues clustered near the checkouts? One-third off. Very good value, you had to admit. Better not: the little fellas probably had a better weekend than you did.

Of course, what is making all this worse is social media which shouts other people's lives the whole time.

Look at me, it screams. Look at ME! Look at my friends, my parties, my pictures. Gorge yourself on my fabulous life: I make Jay Gatsby look like recluse! Stephen Fry? He's an inarticulate numbskull. Look at these fascinating weblinks. See, I'm clever too.

The rise of social media means we are all able to see how much more interesting other people's lives are all the time. Curiously, we want to do this, it seems. It's like peering through the neighbours' windows without actually doing so.

It becomes compulsive. There's a story about an advertising executive whose marriage ended after he asked his wife to have the Facebook, Twitter and Mail icons tattooed on her body so that he would always feel connected.

That's not true, of course, but there are certainly stories about teenagers who use their mobiles as a comforter when they go to bed, a digital teddy if you like.

There's a madness to all this – the Tweet smell of excess.

Global warming is probably attributable to mobile usage (not so much O2 as CO2). Disconnect. Take the dog for a walk.

Besides, if you're patient, the Action does swing your way eventually. Why, you had people around for dinner last Saturday, didn't you?

True, it was only your parents, but they appreciated the new meerkat.