Meaning
Anxious worry that more exciting or rewarding things are happening elsewhere and you are missing them, which can push people to over-check social media or say yes to every invitation. Usually informal and half-joking; no offensive force. Informal and usually self-deprecating or half-joking; no offensive force. Regional use: General English worldwide.
Origin
The acronym was popularised by Patrick J. McGinnis, who coined it in a Harvard Business School op-ed in the student magazine The Harbus on 10 May 2004, titled Social Theory at HBS: McGinnis' Two FOs, which also introduced FOBO, fear of a better option. Wikipedia notes that marketing strategist Dan Herman had already used the full phrase fear of missing out in presentations in the late 1990s and in a 2000 paper, so the underlying idea predates the acronym. Word Spy's earliest citation is from August 2004, months after McGinnis's column. Mainstream arrival came in 2011, when the New York Times and the Guardian both ran pieces explaining the acronym, and hashtag use spread it further. Whether any earlier use of the acronym itself exists is unverified; McGinnis is the documented populariser rather than necessarily the absolute first user.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- FOBO
- JOMO
Usage Examples
- Her FOMO was so strong that she checked three group chats during the ceremony.
- I bought the festival tickets out of pure FOMO and then regretted the cost for weeks.
- He stayed until 2 a.m. because of FOMO, even though he had an early meeting.