THE
SENSATIONALISATION
OF BUSY:
THE FEAR OF MISSING OUT AND
BEING ALONE
Cassandra Heilbronn,
W
ith all of the acronyms being
thrown around in today’s
technological age, you
would most likely have come across
FOMO aka the fear of missing out.
The driving force behind this phrase
being social media, smart phones and
the established culture among our well
entitled of needing to have it now.
I have been guilty of FOMO. For
many years I did not have Facebook
and I did miss out. I would hear
through second hand messages about
engagements, pregnancies, surprise
birthday celebrations, and event deaths,
all because this information was only
communicated through Facebook.
However, after relinquishing my fear, I
have also realised that those I did hear
from are genuine friends and personal
life should not be measured by social
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GLOSS JULY 2015
media engagement.
After discussions with many of my
professional female colleagues, I have
realised that FOMO (and subsequently
social media) has led to another issue –
the sensationalisation of busy. When
a friend calls or texts me and asks
how I have been, I am guilty of saying
“so busy, I’ve been up since 4.30am, I
went to the gym, had breakfast with a
colleague before work, back to backs all
day and now I’m racing to a networking
event”.
This is an accurate reflection of my day
and I do have a busy schedule. What I
was not realising at the time was that I
was saying all of this because I thought
busy equalled success. We have female
role models like Arianna Huffington,
Marissa Mayer and Hillary Clinton.
Women who are constantly busy and
are extremely successful. Anyone could