The FOMO Trap of Encrypted Twitter, and the Quiet Art of ROMO

After reading Gstaad Guy's post, I decided to write an article about ROMO - Relief Of Missing Out. Although the version I stated is different, he asks a good question:

"How can one be afraid of missing out on a bad party and bad company?"

Fear of missing out is an instinctive reaction of the mind. In an online world of cheap dopamine, has FOMO (fear of missing out) become an unavoidable phenomenon? Is this really a novelty? The next few paragraphs contain some philosophical discussions:

ROMO as depicted by Caspar David Friedrich

FOMO and dopamine go hand in hand. It is a trap into which the human mind is naturally prone. Whereas in the past FOMO might have allowed you to learn your neighbor’s new crop rotation technique, today it’s associated with social media group psychology.

Blindly following FOMO has become a sub-optimal survival strategy after humanity transformed the world from resource scarcity to abundance. The ability to survive becomes a tendency to overindulge, whether in food or information.

FOMO is a way of life, but it is not the only way of life - there is ROMO; but ROMO is not a "steps we have to follow" kind of thing. The subtlety of ROMO is that it cannot be practiced deliberately, because ROMO is an innate indifference.

Desire, imitation and FOMO

Most social media feeds, like Twitter feeds, are like a never-ending dinner party. Countless participants trying to hammer you down on what they think is important (mostly for validation, including likes, etc.).

While I occasionally engage in things like Twitter, I've become more and more aware that the screens, which are flooded with views every second, are actually becoming more and more hollow.

As I browsed the feed, I saw two types of players—the influential and the helpful fool—which formed a perfect symbiosis. Influencers start posting content, and once they figure out what useful idiots like, they double down on it.

Influencers are hounded by their followers, and they direct the attention of useful fools (i.e. fans) to self-focus. They post what they think will get more attention—a sign of their narcissistic self-desires.

Desire is the result of imitation, and most desires today are misguided. They're fueled by the giant global talent show that spreads dynamically on social media (or your local Crypto Twitter group, etc.) that will leave you heartily craving all the things you see online. And as the options available to choose from increase, the level of FOMO escalates.

Helpful jerks and influencers on social media platforms are increasingly socially disconnected, without even noticing it, and instead caught in a feedback loop of self-desire, chasing rewards. Social media is inherently non-social, or at best pseudo-social.

Human interaction becomes purely a performance.

These social media dynamics are not unlike a bad company party. It's not really social, but a ritual of parody and self-validation in pursuit of rewards (whether good or bad). So, it's a FOMO trap.

Life becomes an uncontrollable and never-ending hamster wheel, with misguided desires hiding behind the information we see at the next swipe of the finger, we look like predators for hidden prey in the jungle - but it doesn't It doesn't take much effort, just swipe your finger to the next message.

The original natural curiosity of human beings is to explore and discover, which is a reward in itself. And under the influence of modern social media, people crave the certainty of the next dopamine hit, thinking it's hidden behind the next swipe of the finger. This pursuit becomes the process of chasing the reward itself, rather than the real pursuit of exploration and curiosity satisfaction.

Competition is imitation

Competition is a way to prove your worth. We are interested in competition because we feel affirmed and validated when we see other people doing the same things as us. Competition is an inner blind spot for us, and we are easily attracted to it.

Once people become part of a growing circle, it becomes a trap from which they cannot escape. The gravitational pull of this black hole is too strong for financial and social rewards. But at the same time, it has hidden costs, imposing destructive constraints on thinking.

Your mind forces you to go to those terrible parties and meet terrible company without the opportunity to think beyond your current thinking. You can't experience the serenity of cultivating a secret thought when you're trapped in a noisy room where people are constantly chasing FOMO.

Erasmus in the painting is believed to be writing down his secret thoughts. Would he tweet it if he had the chance?

If you already feel trapped and captured by FOMO, there is no one antidote that will bring ROMO. Most importantly, ROMO should not be an ideal to be pursued, because then it would be a simple substitute for FOMO; an anti-FOMOism that would be useless.

ROMO cannot be flexed because it replaces FOMO just for show, becoming an anti-FOMOism that is more about self-image creation. People use it to say, "Look at me, I'm a different person!"

FOMO and ROMO are opposites in nature, but they are not complete substitutes for each other, and the two have different meanings and effects on psychological and emotional levels.

FOMO is a selectivity-related function, meaning we have many options and the fear of missing out on some of them. In contrast, ROMO is an innocent understanding, meaning that we understand things in an innocent way without being explicitly aware of our own understanding. In other words, ROMO makes us feel less compelled to participate in everything, and can choose to participate or not participate more calmly.

ROMO will come quietly

When does a person feel FOMO and when does they not? For example, he feels FOMO because he missed a party. He feels FOMO because he thinks it's something he's worth doing.

But suppose there's a guy who hates astrology and thinks it's a complete waste of his time, and now there's an astrology conference. He doesn't feel FOMO because he's not interested in astrology and doesn't think it's something worth his time.

ROMO followed naturally.

If someone realizes social events or social media is crap, they don't feel FOMO because they're not interested. They don't take the time to make a decision because they're not interested at all.

Therefore, ROMO is not a choice, but a natural feeling that nothing is "missed".

Perceiving FOMO in yourself and then examining its source may be a worthwhile thing to do. When we become aware of the nature of something and understand the implications, we naturally reduce its impact on us. Similar to how people shout out during a panic attack, recognizing the nature of the problem helps them find their emotional balance.

Understanding that there is nothing tangible to gain from chasing anything is the key to starting everything, and then, if one is lucky, one can move away from massive FOMO with a more natural disinterest in it.

When people start to realize that a witch hunt is just a witch hunt, and a treasure hunt is just a treasure hunt, the massive dissonance ceases to function. This means that people are beginning to realize that a so-called witch hunt is just a persecution of a specific target, or that a treasure hunt is just an activity of finding treasure and not having magical or supernatural properties.

People suddenly realize that witches or treasure don't exist, they're just rituals that have been constructed by society and you're only forced to participate because of the people around you.

Relief after understanding

In an environment full of various stimuli, people will inevitably indulge in it. When there are too many things and choices around us, we tend to feel a desire to have all the options, while feeling like they are all optional.

Our minds are conditioned to imitate others, but humans aren't forced to do so all the time. FOMO is the pursuit of rewards, pursuing things that hopefully will bring fulfillment and joy. ROMO, however, is a mindset born of the realization that rewards don't really bring relief. ROMO is not an aggressive pursuit state of mind, but a quiet, natural realization that we stop chasing the illusory comforts of those rewards, and instead know deep down that true relief doesn’t depend on those rewards. award.

Those looking for a way out have the ability to see when imitation and competition take hold. Then they have the ability to avoid FOMO; to recognize the truth about witches or treasure hunts. But this is not to replace FOMO with ROMO, nor does it imply some kind of action.

In our quest for liberation, we have discovered that there is no single method for total freedom from all bondage. However, bittersweetly, when we understand and accept this fact, we actually acquire a new approach. This approach stems from a deep understanding within us, a self-evident recognition that allows us to find, for a time, a subtle freedom in the contradictions and conflicts within us produced.

That's ROMO, a quiet moment that slips by without you noticing.