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Ryan Lee

Jung Soo Lee

Writing 39C

12 November 2019

AP Prospectus

Part 1:

FOMO is a widespread epidemic that has and will continue to affect many adolescents. It

primarily spreads through social media usage, although this is not the only root cause of the

feelings of FOMO. This increasingly prominent issue does not have an easy solution, as

governments cannot regulate an individual's social media usage or shut down the platforms

simply because of FOMO. Due to the lack of any feasible federal solutions, my advocation

project will focus more on solutions implemented at a family level. My overall idea is to have

parents limit their kids' social media usage and take the parental initiative of acting as a means of

support and guidance. Though I am aware that not all parents have the time or care to address

this problem in this particular manner, I see it as the most realistic way that anything can be done

to stop FOMO.

Many scholarly sources about FOMO offer results from research studies that look into

the root causes of FOMO, their relation to social media usage, and the consequences of suffering

FOMO. This data does present FOMO as a real and significant problem, however, few to no

sources offer any advocation of a solution. Most scholarly articles are purely fact-driven, and do

not offer personal opinion towards issues. Additionally, the government cannot realistically

make FOMO disappear by restricting phone use or social media platforms, making legislative
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research sources unhelpful. Because of this lack of any tangible solutions offered by credible

sources, I am thinking that my advocation project will have to infer its solutions to FOMO

through the data and statistics from scholarly research studies. For example, a study that

positively links social media usage to feelings of FOMO would provide strong evidence that

parents should limit their kids' time spent on social media. While I can make inferences based off

of data, there are some sources that advocate solutions, but these are non-scholarly sources that

generally offer basic tips to countering FOMO, such as living life by one's own standards and not

those of others, etc. While I agree with a good majority of these solutions, they are not the kind

of solutions that can realistically solve the problem, therefore I will likely take the worthwhile

solutions and incorporate them into my argument, such as limiting social media usage. In finding

evidence to support the solution I am advocating, I find that some of the sources I used on the

contexts project directly correlate to my presented solution, and therefore I am drawing part of

my solution from the sources I used in that project.

I think the strongest point about my project will be pointing out how there are no

legislative attempts at countering FOMO, and how there are no scholarly solutions to the

problem. Most solutions aim towards self-help and changing one's mindset. My paper could

point this out, while also illustrating the federal difficulties of regulating FOMO, as limiting

peoples' freedom to use social media at will would be unconstitutional. This is why I see parental

influence as the most realistic solution, as no federal initiative can really be taken, and the issue

will likely be overshadowed by more popular issues.

Overall, the idea of my advocation project is to infer a solution primarily from results

presented by scholarly studies of FOMO, while taking into consideration some of the ideas from
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non-scholarly sources which offer a different take on solving the problem of FOMO. Though I

am unsure if this idea is okay, it seems it would be the most likely course of action, given a lack

of any legislative or scholarly solutions. By pointing out the lack of government influence over

the situation, my paper would call for parental action in order to prevent the spread of FOMO.

By encouraging parents to limit their kids' intake of social media and act as a supportive figure,

my solution not only helps mitigate FOMO, but bring families together.

Part 2:

My first source is a Times article that describes the main cause of FOMO and two

solutions. It describes FOMO as stemming from sadness, which is made worse by social media

usage. The article boils the solutions down to the ideas of gratitude and getting attention that will

mitigate feelings of FOMO. The solutions somewhat work in conjunction with each other, the

first is to receive attention in a positive and constructive way, such as visiting friends and

family-in essence, having real experiences-and focusing on gratitude for these experiences,

rather than wanting more and more attention. The source is useful for my advocacy because it

supports my idea that countering FOMO needs to be done at a personal level, through support

groups comprised of loved ones.

My second source is an article from the Anxiety and Depression Association of America,

which proposes that victims of FOMO acknowledge their feelings, limit their social media use,

and that a person focuses on the aspects of their life over those of another. This article is brief,

and lacks depth in its solutions, however it is still useful to me because it further supports my

proposal that parents limit their childrens' social media usage and the need for parents to take
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initiative. What I mean is that parents can help their kids acknowledge the problem and guide

them towards focusing on their lives.

My third source is one from my CP project that perfectly supports my advocacy proposal,

while being a scholarly source. Though it does not outright give solutions to FOMO, the study's

findings allow me to infer the solution to the problem. The article basically states that high

quality family interaction is crucial to preventing FOMO in adolescents, and that poor quality

interaction is a major cause of FOMO. The study also found that even in families of high quality

communication, FOMO levels were still high in adolescents who frequently used social media,

which limited the time they interacted with their family. These findings align with my proposal:

that parents take initiative in their kids' lives and limit their social media use, while also

providing guidance and support to adolescents at risk of-or already experiencing-FOMO.

Because there was research involved in this source, my proposal will be backed by evidence that

I can use to strengthen my argument.

My fourth source also comes from the CP, which is another peer-reviewed article that

discusses a research study which found that feelings of FOMO were positively correlated to

problematic Facebook usage. This is another means to strengthen my proposal that parents limit

their kids' social media usage, as this study indicates that kids are prone to exacerbating their

feelings by using social media excessively in an effort to feel better. Though this source focuses

on only one aspect of my proposal, its focused research and findings give them credibility, along

with making parents limit media usage a critical step towards mitigating the problem of FOMO.

My fifth source is an article from Psychology Today about overcoming FOMO. The

article is brief, and offers ten ways to counter FOMO, which include things such as slowing
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down, practicing discernment, learning to value life's moments, etc. This source is unique,

because I do agree with these methods of countering FOMO, but I feel they're easier said than

actually done. I find it difficult to imagine teenagers suffering from FOMO being able to quickly

change their mindset in order to promote their own happiness. In the scope of my project, I can

point out the good aspects of this article, but also criticize it for leaving out the very important

piece of advice of talking to parents about these issues. A majority of people suffering from

FOMO are adolescents, who value reward over risk (as seen by scientific studies) and therefore

are prone to using social media to improve their mood while ignoring the risk of feeling worse

because of it. Because of this, the article fails to cater its advice to a large portion of its audience

by suggesting solutions an adolescent would likely be incapable of implementing into their

mindset on their own without a parent. These are things I can both praise and criticize, providing

my AP with a unique source to analyze.

My sixth source is an article that discusses how FOMO is used as a marketing technique.

It primarily focuses on how FOMO can drive people to purchase goods and services, but its

methods still apply to social media companies attempting to get users to keep coming back to

their platforms. Some of the considerations taken into account by such companies include

resultant emotions after partaking in whatever the company is attempting to offer, the person's

personality, etc. I listed the most important parts to my proposal; that social media companies

use algorithms to determine what to display to social media users that would most likely get

them to come back and the resulting emotions. The key point: that social media companies are

willfully making users susceptible to FOMO in order to profit off of them. This is a critical

source to my argument, because it allows me to present social media companies as profit-driven

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and mal intended, which is a reason why parents should be limiting their kids' social media time,

and should be acting as a supportive figure who can tell their kids about the predatory nature of

social media.

Sources

● https://time.com/collection/guide-to-happiness/4358140/overcome-fomo/

● https://www.timestelegram.com/zz/timeandmoney/20190820/solutions-to-overcome-fom

o-fear-of-missing-out

● https://search.proquest.com/docview/2235659820?rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

● https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563216306902?via%3Dihub

● https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/stronger-the-broken-places/201501/10-ways-

overcome-fear-missing-out

● https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13527266.2016.1234504

Good sources I may use

● http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=7&sid=9649c666-d166-4c55-bcbc-cb

966c8cb5a6%40pdc-v-sessmgr05&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1za

XRl#AN=130973047&db=a9h