The information age, has its good points and negative points like everything else in life, unfortunately we focus more on the negative effects instead of the positive parts that technology has to offer.

There are many sources of information online such as online newspapers, online news channels, YouTube, online radio stations and social media.

Among all the online sources of information, social media is the one that influences us the most and in some cases, it is the primary news source where we form our views of world events.

This real time ability to learn about the events as they happen, has created a situation where we live in fear of constantly being left out and feel that something is missing in our lives, if we have not heard about it.

Fear of missing out is a serious problem, it makes us tense, worried and anxious about real and imaginary happenings that are taking place and we feel helpless and being unable to take control of the situation.

Why do we live with the fear of missing out?

There are many reasons for this, people are by nature, competitive and want to prove to others that they are better than them, they have bigger houses, bigger cars, go on holidays to famous places and live the good life, even if they cannot afford it, this situation has been made worse with the coming of social media.

Social media has been a major contributor to the fear of missing out because we have social media and messaging sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, WhatsApp and tik tok where unlike in the past, we can post instant status updates and pictures of our material wealth such as as a bigger home, the latest car, the latest destination that we went on holidays and how we had the time of our lives.

Fear of missing out is dangerous and has a negative effect on our mental well-being, it can cause depression, feeling that we are worthless, being demotivated and loss of sef confidence in ourselves, when we constantly see that others are doing better than us.

If we want to keep our peace of mind, then we need to fight against the fear of missing out.

The best way to do this, is to put an end on our dependence on social media to find out our self worth, we are unique individuals and comparing ourselves with others online is not an accurate description of our achievements and our ability to succeed in our daily lives.

In order to deal with the fear, we need to avoid measuring our success in terms of material wealth, everybody has a different social situation and material wealth is temporary, it does not last forever.

We need to appreciate ourselves and not try to live someone else's life, we have our own thinking, attitude and personality, know what you need and stop thinking about what how you can be someone else.

Instead of constantly living in fear of missing out, do something with what you already have and try to develop your abilities further, this will help you to get ahead in life.

Finally, there is life beyond the screen, make it a point to stay in touch with the offline world, this will help you to fight your fear and be a part of the real world.