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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article