Escape from FoMO

By Jacob Burak

Here’s a test you might enjoy: rate these scenarios on a number scale, ranging from 1 for mild discomfort to 7 for outrageous distress.1. rate: 评定等级，给……打分；scenario: 场景，方案；mild: 轻微的，不太严重的；outrageous:令人不能容忍的，极不寻常的；distress: 烦恼，痛苦。

Scenario 1: you’re visiting New York City and realise there’s no way you’ll be able to get to all the exhibits, see all the recommended plays, or take in even a fraction of the “musts” your local friends have raved about.2. exhibit: 展览；a fraction of: 一小部分；must:n. 必须做、看、听的事；rave: 极力赞扬。How do you feel now? Something like 5?

Scenario 2: you’re at dinner with friends, and you’ve all agreed to make it a strictly phone-free evening.3. strictly: 严格地，完全地；phone-free: 禁止使用手机的。But your smartphone won’t stop beeping Twitter and text alerts.4. beep: （提示音）嘟嘟响；Twitter: 这里指推特网上的每一条信息更新；text alert: 短信提示。Something is obviously up5. something is up: 〈口〉发生了某事，出了什么事。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 cultural disorder that is insidiously undermining our peace of mind.6. insidiously: 不知不觉地；undermine: 暗中破坏，以阴险手段暗害。FoMO, a spawn of technological advancement and proliferating social information, is the feeling that we’re missing out on something more exciting, more important,or more interesting going on somewhere else.7.错失恐惧症是科技进步和社交信息激增的产物，其表现为我们感觉自己正在错失某些发生在别处的更刺激、更重要、更有趣的事情。 spawn: 产物，结果；proliferating: 激增的，大量产生的。It is the unease of feeling that others are having a more rewarding experience and we are not a part of it.8. unease: 不自在，忧虑；rewarding: 值得做的，有回报的。According to a recent study, 56 per cent of those who use social networks suffer this modern plague9. plague: 瘟疫，疫病。.

要去伦敦旅行了，却看到一个朋友正在瑞士徒步；买了条裙子，却看到另一个朋友买了一双更漂亮的新鞋；微博、朋友圈的消息更新怎么也看不完……此时，原本高兴的心情转为忧郁，继而变为焦虑、焦躁、茫然、患得患失等诸多情绪的综合体，唯恐自己错过了什么好事。在现代匆匆的生活步调中，这类“错失恐惧症”对我们生活质量的妨碍越来越明显。我们能否偶尔学会与我们的手机、电脑和社交网络说拜拜呢？

Of course, that sense of missing out is nothing new. Edith Wharton, Charlotte Bront and Stendhal,to name but a few, described the angst of missing out long before we could look up high-school friends on Facebook.10. Edith Wharton: 伊迪丝·华顿（1862—1937），美国女作家，代表作包括《高尚的嗜好》、《纯真年代》和《战地英雄》等；Charlotte Bront: 夏洛特·勃朗特（1816—1855），19世纪英国著名女作家，世界文学名著《简·爱》的作者，勃朗特三姐妹之一；Stendhal: 司汤达（1783—1842），19世纪法国作家，被认为是最重要和最早的现实主义实践者之一，代表作包括《红与黑》和《帕尔马修道院》等；angst: 忧虑，恐惧。

But while 19th-century protagonists spent a lifetime grappling with a single missed opportunity,today’s incessant flow of information is a disturbing reminder of the world rushing by.11. protagonist: （小说或故事中的）主角，主人公；grapple with: 尽力解决；incessant: 不断的，持续的。As you read this,you might be missing a party that some friends are throwing12. throw a party: 举办一场聚会。or the meal that other friends are eating without you. At night, when you’ve solemnly sworn yet again to put the phone aside or turn off the computer, you grab one last peek at the screen on your way to bed—lest you miss some titbit supplied by mere acquaintances or even strangers requesting your“friendship” or announcing news.13. 夜里，你再次郑重地下决心要把手机放在一边或关掉电脑，然而你还是在上床前抓住最后一次机会往屏幕上一瞅，生怕你错过了哪怕是不熟的人发布的一些花边趣闻，甚至只是陌生人的好友请求或者系统消息。solemnly: 郑重地，严肃地；lest: 唯恐，生怕；titbit:趣闻，花边新闻。

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 fertile ground for a future of looking back in sorrow.14. 倘若如此，一直看别人做着一些自己无法做的事情，将来回想之时难免会引发诸多伤感。fertile: 有助于……发展的，滋生……的。A lively conversation at the other end of the table can give us the FoMO itch, just as can the dizzying array of shows, parties, books, or the latest in consumer trends pumped at us by social media.15. 在桌子另一端进行的高谈阔论就能令我们的“错失恐惧症”发作，正如社交网站不断推送给我们的一系列令人眼花缭乱的演出、聚会、书籍或最新消费趋势一样能使我们“发病”。lively: 热烈的，愉快的；itch: 痒，欲望；dizzying: 令人眼花缭乱的，令人不知所措的；array: 一批，大量；pump:（信息或产品）大量供应。

Our attractive online personas—so alluring from afar—make FoMO more virulent still.16. persona: 伪装的外表；alluring: 吸引人的，迷人的；afar: 在远处，遥远地；virulent: 恶性的，致命的。The Massachusetts Institute of Technology social psychologist Sherry Turkle says that technology has become the major construct through which we define intimacy.17. the Massachusetts Institute of Technology:麻省理工学院，美国一所综合性私立大学，有“世界理工大学之最”的美名；social psychologist: 社会心理学家；construct: 构想，概念；intimacy: 亲密，亲近。We confuse our hundreds, or even thousands, of“friends” on social networks with the handful of intimate friends we have in reality.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews, Turkle claims that the price we are paying for technological prosperity is the gradual decline of important relationships—with our parents, children, or partners—and the birth of a new type of loneliness.18. draw on: 利用，动用（信息、经验、知识等）；prosperity: 兴隆，发达。“Insecure in our relationships, and anxious about intimacy,” she writes, “we look to19. look to: 指望，依靠。technology for ways to be in relationships, and protect ourselves from them at the same time.” If you have ever looked on in wonder as someone taps out an endless text message instead of actually talking to the person they’re with, you will find comfort in Turkle’s assessment that our relationship with technology is still maturing.20. tap out:（尤指用手指或脚）轻敲出；mature: 变成熟。Being connected to everyone, all the time, is a new human experience; we’re just not equipped to cope with it yet.21. be equipped to: 有能力做……；cope with:处理，应付。

Turkle says our dependence on technology can be mitigated if we manage to detach ourselves, even for short periods of time,from our gadgets.22. mitigate: 缓和，减轻；detach oneself from: 使从……分离；gadget:（尤指电子、机械的）小装置，小玩意。Will we one day buy devices from FA (FoMO Anonymous)23. FA: 匿名戒“错失恐惧症”会。源自著名的美国匿名戒酒会（Alcoholics Anonymous），一个国际性互助戒酒组织，帮助酗酒者戒酒，重新过正常的生活。to help us recover from our technology addiction?Even with such interventions, the problem might be resolved only when we grasp that our brains and our humanity—not our technologies—enable this addiction, in the end.24. intervention: 干预，介入；resolve: 解决（矛盾、问题、争端等）；grasp: 理解，领悟。We cannot seek solutions without honestly asking ourselves why we are so afraid of missing out.

The University of Oxford social scientist Andrew Przybylski recently conducted the first empirical study on the exploding disorder.25. empirical study: 实证研究，即通过直接或间接的观察或经验获得知识的方式；exploding: 激增的，迅速扩张的。Among his conclusions, there and elsewhere, is that FoMO is a driving force behind social media use.26. there and elsewhere: 此处指“在上句提到的实证研究以及别的研究中”；driving force: 推动力。FoMO levels are highest in young people, in particular young men. It is high in distracted drivers, who engage in other activities while behind the wheel.27. distracted: 思想不集中的，分神的；behind the wheel: 在驾驶汽车时。此处的“wheel”指的是方向盘。And perhaps most revealing,FoMO occurs mostly in people with unful filled psychological needs in realms such as love, respect,autonomy and security.28. unfulfilled: 未得到满足的，未能实现的；autonomy: 独立自主，自主权。All in all, we are afraid of missing out on love and on feeling that we belong; those of us heavily invested in work also fear missing an opportunity for professional advancement or a profitable deal.29. invest in: 在……上投入时间、精力等；professional advancement: 升职；profitable:可获利的，有利可图的。

Freedom from other people’s opinions and release from social comparison is a triumph reserved for very few.30. triumph: 胜利；be reserved for: 为……保留。The self-discipline strong enough to withstand31. withstand: 经得起……，顶得住……。the power of FoMO is no less rare. What, then, can we do about something so detrimental32. detrimental: 不利的，有害的。to our quality of life?The best way to cope with FoMO might be to recognise that, at our frenetic pace of life, we are sometimes bound to miss out.33. frenetic: 疯狂的，激动的；be bound to: 必然，一定要。And that, when we do, we might actually improve the outcomes of the options we have chosen.Our soul is crying out for help, imploring us to limit our super ficial connectivity and our frantic hopping from site to site.34. implore: 恳求，企求；super ficial: 表面的，肤浅的；frantic: 疯狂的，狂乱的；hopping: 跳跃。

If you still doubt that “good enough” is the best antidote to FoMO, the words of the American essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson might strike a chord:35. antidote: 解药，对抗手段；Ralph Waldo Emerson: 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生（1803—1882），美国思想家、文学家；strike a chord:（在某人心中）引起共鸣。“For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else.”