FOMO? More like GINT (or, "The Grumpy Old Man Post")

FOMO is a noun. It is fear of missing out. It means, according to Urban Dictionary (sort of a modern France's Académie for American English these days) as:

A form of social anxiety - a compulsive concern that one might miss an opportunity or satisfying event, often aroused by posts seen on social media websites.

I never, never get FOMO.

(What, never?)

No, never.

(What, NEVER?)

Well... hardly ever.

(He hardly ever gets FOMO!)

Whether it's because I'm extremely confident in who I am as a person, because I am extremely egocentric, and/or because I quote Gilbert and Sullivan lyrics while I'm writing a blog, I almost never see pictures on social media and think, "Dang, I wish I had been there".

Instead, I noticed last night that, instead, I more often experience GINT.

Glad I'm not there.

Which is funny, perhaps, because lots of research and opinions indicate that people often curate and distort real life when they post on social media, which causes envy amongst many of us who see it. It causes FOMO, in other words.

But me? It causes GINT. Even if I am happy that the people appear to be having fun, I usually am happy that I'm wherever I am when I'm seeing them having fun.

As I thought about the notion of GINT, I wondered what, specifically, I feel that over and I came up with a few things.

Boat Parties

I don't know these people

Listen, bikinis are great, especially when a woman is wearing one. I'm all in favor of drinking and having a good time and having adventures and doing group activities.

When I see pictures of what I'm referring to in this post as "boat parties", it is usually women in bikinis with big smiles on their faces (and often big sunglasses, of which I am also a fan) enjoying the sunshine and/or an adult beverage.

This should, given my predilections, cause me FOMO. Instead, it causes me GINT. I remember that I don't like being in the sunshine that much. I remember the times where random women have asked me if I have a boat. I remember the times where guys who do have a boat used it as a carrot to attract women.

I totally acknowledge that boats can be fun. I recognize that my friends aren't just using, in the case of men, their boat to lure women and, in the case of women, the men to get their boat. Or maybe they are and it's not malicious.

Or maybe it's malicious. I don't know. I just know I am glad I'm not there.

Burning Man

Listen: I am what I like to think of as "Burning Man Adjacent". I attend fundraisers for Burning Man camps. I have attended a decompression or two. I have literally dozens of friends or friendly acquaintances that have attended Burning Man (it's a low number of dozens, but still...)

I admire so much about it. The creativity and the openness and the sense of community and the women wearing little clothing.

So much good stuff.

I don't know these people

But I don't like getting dusty. I don't like big crowds. I don't do drugs (other than booze and the occasional caffeine-rich soda pop). I don't like the idea that if I'm not having a good time I can't just disappear, whether to my home or to a hotel room or whatever.

My friends post beautiful pictures of their time at Burning Man. I'm not sure that they capture being on the Playa--in fact, I'm quite sure they don't--and I can't discount the possibility that I will go som day. But I look at the posts and the pictures and I don't feel any sense of missing out or longing to be there--I feel GINT and pleasure that I can't get Playa foot in my living room.

Twitter

I'm pretty active on social media, and I have expectations for each of the primary platforms:

• Instagram: Inspirational quotes, food, and female butts.
• Facebook: Baby pictures, political nonsense, memes.
• Snapchat: First-person driving videos with music on the radio, pot smoking.
• TikTok: Hypersexualized under-age girls lip-syncing songs I've never heard.
• Twitter: Angry blow-hard opinions, racism/anti-semitism, SJW nonsense.

(With TikTok [at the time, Musical.ly] it took me about an hour before I determined it wasn't for me and uninstalled it. Enough said about that.)

I really don't like this

I limit my time on Twitter almost as severely. I really, really don't like it.

I've maintained an account since 2007 (although I rarely post), and while I acknowledge its importance to some folks, I believe it's one of the worst things to bubble out of the Internet. 

I don't like how the artificially low number of characters allowed (originally so you could text in a post) change how people spell and form thoughts. I don't like how certain users are deemed to be "blue check-worthy". I don't like, you know, the racism and anti-semitism and group think and tribalism and stupidity and rage.

Soooooo... while it's not a specific type of social media content, whenever I hear people talking about Twitter arguments (which is almost always the case, since Twitter exchanges are usually either yelling at someone or agreeing to dogpile on someone) I nod and feel a strong sense of GINT.