FOMO stands for fear of missing out. It's the anxiety that something interesting is happening somewhere without you, and it often hits when you're scrolling through other people's photos and stories. In an essay and in IELTS Speaking, the full form is the safer choice: fear of missing out.
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get/have + fomo; give + person + fomo; serious/major fomo
- Everyone's posting photos from the festival and I'm stuck at home with fomo.
- Your beach pics are giving me serious fomo, I need a holiday.
- I said yes to three parties this weekend because of fomo, and now I'm exhausted.
What changed
First versionSocial media can harm teenagers because it often causes fomo and low self-esteem.
RevisionSocial media can harm teenagers because it often causes a fear of missing out and low self-esteem.
This sentence comes from an essay, and slang abbreviations aren't used in essays, especially in lower case. The expression is written out in full: a fear of missing out. Research articles sometimes use fear of missing out (FOMO), with the full form first, but in IELTS it's safer to avoid the abbreviation altogether.
FOMO isn't envy of other people's things but the fear of missing an event or experience. About a friend's new car, people say I'm jealous of your new car, and about a party you didn't go to, I've got fomo.
Your turn
All my friends went to the concert without me, and their videos gave me real ___.
Show the answer
fomo — Your friends are at the concert, and you're at home watching their videos: that's the frustration and anxiety of missing something interesting, which is fomo. YOLO is a call to take a risk, you only live once, and it isn't the name of a feeling other people's videos can give you.
Write to a friend about a time you had fomo. Say what event you missed and how you found out what it was like.
I had major fomo last Saturday when I saw my colleagues' photos from the boat party I skipped.
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