Escape from FoMO

Here’s a test you might enjoy: rate these situations on a number scale, ranging from 1 for mild discomfort to 7 for unbearable distress.

Situation 1: you’re visiting New York City and realize there’s no way you’ll be able to get to all the exhibits, see all the recommended plays or take in even part of the “musts”. How do you feel now? Something like 5?

Situation 2: you’re at dinner with friends, and you’ve all agreed to make it a strictly phone-free evening. But your smartphone won’t stop keeping Twitter and text alerts. Something is obviously up in your social network, but you can’t check. Even 7 wouldn’t match the stress you’re feeling now.

Welcome to FoMO (Fear of Missing Out), the latest mental disorder caused by social media connections sharing updates that leaves individuals feeling that they are missing out on something more exciting, important, or interesting going on somewhere else. It is an outcome of technological advancement and booming social information. According to a recent study, 56 per cent of those who use social networks suffer this.

It is not uncommon that at night when you’ve sworn again to put the phone aside or turn off the computer, you cast one last glance at the screen on your way to bed in case you miss some titbit (趣闻)supplied by mere acquaintances or even strangers’ requesting your “friendship”.

We all know the studies showing that end-of-life regrets centre on what we didn’t do, rather than on what we did. If so, constantly watching others doing things that we are not is rich ground for a future of looking back in sorrow. Attractive online images—so charming from afar—make FoMO more destructive. Technology has become the major construct through which we define intimacy (亲密).You may look on in wonder as someone taps out an endless text message instead of actually talking to the person they’re with. Being connected to everyone, all the time, is a new human experience; we’re just not equipped to cope with it yet.

Researchers say our dependence on technology can be reduced if we manage to separate ourselves, even for short periods of time, from our gadgets. However, the problem can only be settled when we grasp that our brains and our humanity—not our technologies—enable this addiction. We cannot seek solutions without honestly asking ourselves why we are so afraid of missing out. Researchers find FoMO occurs mostly in people with unfulfilled psychological needs in fields such as love, respect and security. FoMO levels are highest in young people, in particular young men.

What, then, can we do about something so damaging to our quality of life? The best way to cope with FoMO is to recognize that, at our fast-paced life, we are sometimes bound to miss out. Instead of trying to maximize our benefits, we seek a merely “good enough” result. If you still doubt that“good enough” is the best cure for FoMO, the words of the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson might strike the right chord,“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”

Escape from FoMO

Main Points

Details

Concept of FoMO

FoMO, constantly 1.

our peace of mind, refers to the unease of feeling that we are not part of social connection.

Examples of FoMO

• When having dinner with friends, we feel extremely depressed when

2. to check our social network.

• Determined as we are to put aside phones, we can’t shift our (73) from them until we go to bed.

3. behind FoMO

• Technology develops and social information explodes.

• Images of online friends 4. more to us, compared to our real world friends.

• Some of us attempt to feel5.A fulfilled on social network.

Bad effects of FoMO

• We are constantly6. for things that we didn’t do.

• Communicating with friends in the virtual world gives7. to the decline of important relationships with friends and family.

Suggestions on avoiding

FoMo

• Get (8. from the modern technology.

• Recognize that missing out is part of our life.

• Accept that9.can sometimes be “a blessing in disguise”.

D

Whenever you buy something, it is possible that someone has already worn, eaten, or tested

it to make sure it is safe and do what is supposed to do. But what if you wanted a special suit to keep a shark from hurting you? Who wants to test a product like it?

"I do! " says Jeremiah Sullwan, a scientist in California "You have to believe in what you sell, right?"

Sullivan. owns SharkArmor Tech, a company that makes a $ 49400 sharksuit that even a great white shark can’ t bite through. Before Sullivan could sell his sharksuits, he needed to make sure his design would work. Sullivan put on the sharksuit and jumped into a shark feeding ground. "I need to know exactly what a human body could expect to go through," he says. Sharks moved all around him and then attacked his arm. Sullivan felt the bite but no teeth. He was uncomfortable at times, but not painful. The suit works! "

"I’ve now been bitten thousands of times but. never badly," says Sullivan, who now works with shows like Wild Kingdom, and programs for the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

So,are you all set to buy a sharksuit? Before you do, you should know that the suit weighs 20 pounds and makes swimming almost impossible--not so practical for a day on the beach. And in fact, Sullivan wants only professionals, such as filmmakers, scientists and drivers, to have sharksuits. Why? Because even if someone is wearing a sharksuit, they could get seriously hurt if they treat diving with a 4,OOO-pound shark as a game.

During sharksuit testing, sharks have thrown Sullivan to a bottom o/ reefs(礁) and tried to take him off into the deepest part of the ocean. "However," Sullivan says," you don't need to be afraid of sharks. It’s actually pretty hard to get a shark to bite you, "

1.The first paragraph is written to .

A. start a discussion

B. introduce the topic of the text

C. show the main points of the text

D. test readers' knowledge

2.Why did Sullivan get close to sharks?

A. To see if his sharksuit works.

B. To study what sharks feed on.

C. To catch a special kind of white shark.

D. To learn how to swim with sharks safely,

3.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 5 mean?

A. Most people won't wear the sharksuit to the beach

B. People like to go to the beach with the sharksuit.

C. The sharksuit makes a perfect day on the beach

D. The sharksuit can’t be worn for a whole day.

4.We can learn from the text that the sharksuit _

A.works well for swimmers

B. is light but uncomfortable

C. keeps sharks away from humans

D. is designed for special purpose

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网