By: McCrindle
Social anxieties are not just the domain of young people. Social challenges and their accompanying acronyms affect each lifestage and generation differently.
Generation Z young people are well known for experiencing FOMO (fear of missing out) and to avoid this, they keep an active eye on social media and the accompanying invites.
However, their forty or fifty-something Gen X parents are happy to have left the frantic social gatherings behind. Amidst the busyness of their lives, it is JOMO (joy of missing out) not FOMO that is their lot.
When responsibilities take over
Generation Y, also known as Millennials, are aged in their late twenties or thirties and many are trying to keep their social live active. However, as they start their families, the complexity of parenting is afflicting many. Evening or weekend plans now go awry due to the babysitter cancelling, an unsettled child or just the duties of the parenting life. For them, FOMO has been replaced by ROMO (responsibilities occasioning missing out).
Baby Boomers, as they move through their late fifties and sixties, are experiencing an unexpected lengthening of their parenting role with young adult children still at home. Although less socially active than their children, they are the ones likely to be funding it all. PAYMO is their lot (paying for adult children yet missing out). While their FOMO kids are worried they won’t be there, the parents are funding whoever was there.
Generation Alpha avoid FOMO with VIDMO
The youngest in society, Gen Alpha, are also the most digitally connected. They avoid FOMO with VIDMO (viewed it on Instagram so didn’t miss out). If the youngest were virtually at whatever was on, the oldest generation, out of the loop digitally, didn’t even hear that anything was on. They have something better than JOMO and cheaper than PAYMO. Their lot is the bliss of SOMO – the silence of missing out.
Article supplied with thanks to McCrindle.
About the Author: McCrindle are a team of researchers and communications specialists who discover insights, and tell the story of Australians – what we do, and who we are.