FOMO is a serious disease that is spreading rapidly throughout the nation every day. FOMO is spread with every Snapchat story, every Instagram post, and every tweet. We have all been there before, everyone knows how it feels to suffer from FOMO. So what is FOMO you ask? FOMO is the Fear Of Missing Out.

We all know what it is like to be sitting at home one night, binge watching Netflix in bed and being completely content until you check your Snapchat and see all of your friends going out and having a great time. Suddenly your night to yourself doesn’t feel as relaxing anymore and just makes you upset. Or when you have a weekend planned to go out of town that you were excited for until your friends start talking about what they are going to do that weekend while you’re gone. Your fun weekend getaway turns into you being sad that you don’t get to take part in what is going on at home.

At the same time, we have all been there before when we DO go out, because of FOMO, and the whole time wishing we were at home instead. Your friends convinced you to go out with them and you regret it 20 minutes in when you realize everyone you’re with is just sitting on their phones anyways, or it’s really just not that fun. Nothing exciting is going on until something funny happens for two seconds and everyone instantly has their snapchats out to add it to their stories or a few girls take the same posed picture over again 20 times because the first one (that looked exactly like the 20^th one) wasn’t good enough.

It should be about time we all say screw FOMO. You don’t need to always be going out or doing something in order to have a good time. Yeah, maybe those friends all over snapchat DID have a fun night going out. That doesn’t mean you can’t have a fun night staying in. Everyone needs a little “me” time every now and then. Lay in bed, order pizza, and finish that season of Grey’s Anatomy. If you suffer from severe FOMO, stay off the phone for the night and just enjoy the presence of McDreamy instead. You can go out the next night or the next weekend, but until then, don’t let FOMO keep you from doing what you really want to do. Enjoy your weekend out of town. All of your friends will still be right back at home where you left them when you get back. Nothing will be different and you didn’t miss any life-changing experiences.

We have to realize people hype themselves up on social media. They only show the world what they want the world to see which is, “I’m having a great time. Way more fun than you and my life is awesome and better than yours”. Just remember they have nights where they sit on the couch and do nothing too. You do what makes you happy and just let everyone else get too caught up in how fun they are making their lives look on social media. Screw FOMO.