How technology creates the fear of missing out(FOMO)

How many times did you

•  take a selfie/photo to post on Facebook/Instagram instead of enjoying the moment
• Check your mobile phone to see notifications
• Get disturbed by your smartphone beeps
• Pay more attention to the online world than office world
• Keep scrolling down into the 'infinite' scroll
• Stop at the top few choices presented to you on Google Search, Zomato
• Feel the need to ratify your investment decision on moneycontrol?
• Stalk long lost friends and see the list of exotic places they had gone(and feel envy)

If you have ticked the box on any of these, welcome to the world of FOMO. While I was reading online on mental models, this one caught my attention, and I came across a really superb article below which highlights the problem with false choices, social media driven ADD etc. 

https://medium.com/swlh/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3#.kg0xgfdxa

To avoid FOMO which may drive impulsive decisions, one should restrict social media( OK maybe not delete your accounts but track them only once a week, with the comment that anything urgent would be checked weekly). 

The online forum users who get my hackles up.

Be it Rediff/Facebook pages/online job postings etc, one invariably sees a lot of spam and clutter. This is because of the people below.

• The Q jumper:-This person does not bother to use the 'report abuse'/'customer service ticket' options but straight away plugs in a forum message
• The spammer:-This person advertises their product/services ranging from Nigerian letter fraud to work from home to online retail for certain err..drugs.
• The English challenged:-This person posts rants in broken English. Nothing wrong in that per se, just that I dislike it.
• The Agenda pusher:-This person has a rant against a person(say AzimPremji/Sonia Gandhi/Congress/missionaries) and whatever be the topic, somehow finds a way to insert their views into the fray and create a mess. 
• The CAPSLOCKER:-This person imagines that by  writing everything in caps, they will somehow get more attention. Nothing can be farther than the truth.
• The hoarder:-When a kind soul states that s(he) will email/share a resource with all those who email them, the hoarder is too lazy to send an email, but instead decides to
• The potential social engineering victim:-This person gives their personal details like name/address/contact details and even account numbers, hoping that the customer care person will take care of it OR that the

Is Facebook becoming the new Orkut?

I know Orkut is still quite popular in Brazil and a few other places; but Facebook is the 'in thing' for quite some time. But unless it reins in the commercial aspects from marring the user experience, it runs the risk of losing its way like Orkut. When launched, Orkut was the only social networking site of its kind, and soon became a craze even in India. But if things proceed at their present

Facebook WAS designed initially for connecting campus residents closely, but now incoming batches make this a circus. People whom you have barely met before(like long lost school juniors/seniors), those whom you have not seen(incoming junior batch), distant relatives-everyone joins in the feeding frenzy to befriend as many people online as possible. A person who makes 300+ Facebook campus friends, may not even walk till the next dorm to chat in person. And this ruins the experiences. Would YOU want random friend updates from someone whom you hardly knew, but whose friend invite you had accepted for fear of not upsetting him/her? Like how Facebook allows you to filter your information for a select circle, it is high time for doing so when it comes to updates.

And then, the ever ballooning apps irritating updates, privacy controversies etc, do nothing to enhance the reputation of Facebook. They have remained 'cool' so far largely thanks to the user friendly interface and hip image, but if the number of ad breaks/commercial space usage increases, I for one would reconsider.

Takeaway:-Facebook/Orkut(ok to be fair most social networks) stretch the meaning of 'friend'. It is a personal choice whether you want a small network whom you know well/have met in person; or whether you want the equivalent of a huge visiting card collection of strangers.