FOMO Seeping In
I've been too busy at work to slack off. In a vacuum that's a good thing. But it's making me feel cut off; cut off from participating in social media and new-found friends (or in some cases parasocial relationships). Cut off from reading blog posts of interesting people.
I'm experiencing feelings of anxiety because of this. I know what it is: FOMO. How do I combat this? I've done it before, it's not "technically" difficult. But it can be difficult. One of the reasons I'm experiencing this anxiety is because I feel like I'm only sharing my blog posts on Mastodon and not providing any other value to the community.1
I do that via IFTTT; I have it set to watch my RSS feed for new posts, and then share them automatically on Mastodon. The process works great, except for 1 or 2 minor tweaks I'd like to make.2 But because I've been spending so much time away from most social platforms, I feel like that's all I'm doing. The solution is simple: make more time for reading, and posting original stuff.
Easier said than done. As I mentioned earlier I'm a lot busier with work, though that could be this week is full of year-end stuff. After all, I am finding time right now to write this post. Surely I could find some time to scroll around Mastodon? (The answer to that question is yes, I can.)
But I'm also reminded of posts I wrote a couple of years ago about JOMO.3 This is one of the key parts of why I instituded "No Socials Sunday", which essentially shuts down my phone. My phone usage goes way down on Sundays compared to the rest of the week because of this, and I don't miss social media at all when I do this. If I can remember that feeling on Sundays and extend it to the rest of the week, I believe it will help me get over this anxiety.
And in the meantime I will try to be more present on Mastodon instead of just sharing my blog updates.