FOMO vs JOMO: Which Mindset Boosts Wellbeing in the Digital Age?

We live in a world where our phones are almost glued to our hands. Endless scrolling, constant updates, and the need to “stay connected” have become part of everyday life. For many, the first instinct in the morning is to check Instagram or open WhatsApp. It feels like if we don’t, we might miss something important or worse, fall behind. This is where FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out, sneaks in.

But is there another way to live? A mindset that replaces this anxiety with peace? That’s where JOMO, the Joy of Missing Out, enters the conversation. And experts believe that embracing JOMO could change how we feel, think, and live in the digital age.

FOMO: The Fear That Everyone Else Is Doing Better

Shaikh Uzma Jamal, Emotional Fitness Coach and Founder of Educate To Elevate, Lucknow, explains it clearly, “Today’s world is all about hours and hours of screen time, constantly being online and hyperconnected, and that’s why FOMO feels like a default setting. It is like a sense of anxiety that everyone is doing better, living better and growing faster than us.”

FOMO shows up in different ways:

• The instinct is as soon as I wake up to check open social media.
• The lapse is when you miss a party, event, or course.
• The languor of taking a back seat behind the highlight reel of another.
• As Uzma Jamal says, it is a primitive feeling.

FOMO is the result of the thinking that, without inclusion, one will be rejected. Our brain does not wish to remember that; we no longer have to be afraid of survival in the digital era. It's just an ancient program operating in a new world.

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Enter JOMO: The Joy of Missing Out

And what would it be like to feel delighted in deciding what pace to move at, and not fear being left behind? With this brainless competition, when we stopped and wondered: Do I really want this, or am I afraid I will be left out? Here JOMO comes in. What people fail to understand about JOMO is that it is not a refusal to live but an ordinary life or a dull or a wise life. JOMO is not laziness or non-interest. It is all a matter of being choosy. It is all about preserving your energy and filtering your experiences.

How Emotional Fitness Helps Shift From FOMO to JOMO

As an Emotional Fitness Coach and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) practitioner, Uzma Jamal uses a simple yet powerful principle, “Emotions are data.” Instead of running from them, we can decode them.

Here are some tools she suggests:

Internal Vs External Locus Of Control

• FOMO is the product of external confirmations. It waits on other people's schedules.
• Internal validation is activated by JOMO. It aids you in untangling yourself with your own values and deciding what feels suitable to you.

JOMO Is Not Ghosting 

• It does not mean to cut people off by missing an event.
• JOMO is the active process of choosing your life and saying yes to what is important.

Increase Your Self-Esteem

• It is not by missing a party that you have missed life.
• JOMO makes sure you can detach your self-worth from what you follow on social.

Questions to Ask Yourself When FOMO Strikes

Uzma Jamal shares some powerful reflections to break the cycle of comparison:

• What am I saying yes to just because I fear falling behind?
• What drains me, even though it looks “fun” on the outside?
• What would I do differently if I truly honoured my inner joy?
• These questions shift focus from chasing trends to chasing truth.

Why JOMO Feels So Liberating

Think of JOMO as giving yourself permission. Permission to rest. Permission to say no. Permission to choose your pace. In the process, you begin to:

• Sleep better
• Reduce anxiety
• Strengthen focus on real priorities
• Protect emotional energy
• Build healthier relationships
• Most importantly, JOMO helps you feel in charge of your life again.

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Conclusion: Choosing Presence Over Pressure

In today’s hyperconnected digital world, FOMO may feel natural, but it often leads to exhaustion and self-doubt. JOMO, on the other hand, is not about missing out at all. It’s about tuning into yourself. By shifting from external validation to internal peace, we create space for what truly matters.

As Uzma Jamal says, “Conditioning our brain to accept and embrace JOMO is the key to mental wellbeing.” Perhaps the real question isn’t what we might miss out on, but what joy we might discover when we stop chasing everything else.