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We wanted to specifically differentiate between FOMO and the idea of regret. So some people I think use the word FOMO,
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but they just regret not being there. >> Sure. >> And we wanted to define our FOMO as
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specifically not regret >> um and as specifically having to do with social media. So social media
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exacerbates it. And we also found from all our work over the 10 years that FOMO tended to be used more when it had to do
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with social groups, right, than when it had to do with just missing an event, per se. So what you were feeling FOMO
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was about something that you missed that your friends were doing that you weren't
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part of, right? And what we found is that's what people really meant when they were saying FOMO and that's how it
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differentiated from regret. So something like if you missed out on a concert that
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your friends were going to and they were going to have that great experience but
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you were not going to have it, >> right? And that's what over the years we
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started saying that's where FOMO is different than regret. You might regret missing the concert, right?
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>> But you feel FOMO if your friends went to the concert and you didn't. And so
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that's what we were really trying to tease apart. What does that FOMO mean? What is it that you're missing? Right?
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>> And what we thought it was is you were missing being there with your friends.
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>> So you were missing part of the social history that was being developed around
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your friend group. >> And I'm guessing the component of social media then comes in when those friends
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are maybe posting pictures or posting videos from the event that you miss out on. You see it and it just kind of it
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doubles the the angst that you feel. >> Right. So that's what ended up being
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what we started to study. It was something. It's not just missing an event. It's missing specifically an
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event that your friends have that you're not at. And it becomes exacerbated because you're seeing all these pictures
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and you're imagining what went on that you weren't a part of. >> So there's an element of that you're
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looking at specifically kind of at the psychology behind a lot of this, >> right? And so just before I get to the
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business implications of it, it took us forever to publish this. So we're not on
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publishing on the business yet, but we have thought about it and we have run a bunch of studies on it. But there was a
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couple things that was interesting about this. So the first thing is it's not
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about the event. So you can feel FOMO even for a negative event, right? >> Um so like you could your friends might
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go to a funeral and you regret not being there because your friends were bonding
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over things that happened at the funeral. So it's it's not the event per
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se, it's the bonding. The other thing that we discovered the more we did research on it was that it's not really
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a fear. It's more like an anxiety. And the difference is is an anxiety is kind
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of cognitive. It's the way you think about it. So you're imagining [music]
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what you're missing out and it may be you're not maybe missing out on that
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much. It's just that you think you're missing out on it. >> Thank you for listening to the ripple
00:03:02
effect. We hope you found this episode informative and engaging. Don't forget
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00:03:12
School.