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TARTLE is on a roll. We\\u2019ve had a bunch of great guests over on T-Cast of late and today is no exception. This time, Alex and Jason chat with Patrick J. McGinnis. Patrick has done a lot as a venture capitalist, the author of the book, The 10% Entrepreneur, and as a public speaker. What he is most well-known for is coining the term FOMO. For those who don\\u2019t follow the latest slang terms flying around the internet, FOMO is short for the Fear of Missing Out.

So, how is it that the invention of an internet slang term makes one\'s name known to many outside of the investment world? Because FOMO is a legitimate social phenomenon, one that has become more and more significant with the rise of social media. It began back in 2003 when the young Patrick was at Harvard, coincidentally at the same time Zuckerberg was working on Facebook. However, even though social media had yet to really take off, Harvard was full of choices and opportunities that would make one\\u2019s head spin. There was so much to do, it was literally impossible to do it all. Patrick noticed the effect this was having on people, himself included and wrote the article that coined the term. Since then, it has been added to the Oxford Dictionary and become part of the common parlance of the modern world.\\xa0

How does FOMO actually work? It can apply in a variety of ways. It can of course be a situation in which you see or learn of something going on and you just wish that you could do that because it seems great. A more acute experience is feeling as though you\\u2019re being excluded from some kind of group experience. Patrick uses the example of the show Tiger King. It reached a\\u2026shall we say, surprising level of popularity at the beginning of COVID. How many people watched the show not because it actually sounded interesting to them, but because they just wanted to be part of the discussion? Just so they could understand the memes and the tweets? That\\u2019s just one example of something that happens all the time, the herd plays a huge role in determining the interests of the individual, which in turn determines how the individual spends his time and money. You are literally handing over your individual agency to the herd.\\xa0

In a certain sense, FOMO has always been a part of the human experience. As Patrick points out, back in the early days of humanity, if you were out of the information loop on the latest antelope movements, you would likely starve to death. You definitely don\\u2019t want to miss out on that. What is different now is that it is virtually constant, about a variety of things, things that in themselves aren\\u2019t all that important. Does it matter objectively if you are up on the latest Tiger King or Game of Thrones episode? No, there are zero existential consequences. Yet, the level of anxiety a person feels may be on par with the tribesman who missed the wildebeest update.\\xa0

FOMO is also intentionally used as a marketing or motivational tool. Which of course can have good or bad results depending on the ends. But we absolutely need to develop some self-awareness about how we are being manipulated. For one, the more time we spend on social media, the more we are getting manipulated and getting fed a distorted sense of reality. There are of course tons of satirical videos making fun of this, but a real world example involves a lake in Russia. The lake itself is very beautiful and a bunch of influencers go there to take photos. You are given the impression they\\u2019re chilling at a beautiful vacation spot. In reality, they are just there for the photo because if you actually go in that lake, it is so toxic that you will then be going to the hospital.\\xa0

So, how to break that cycle? There isn\\u2019t an easy fix. At the end of the day, it\\u2019s the same as making decisions about health. Once you realize there is a problem, are you willing to take the necessary steps to deal with it? Can you come up with a plan to put the phone down and stick to it? Can you take back control, and are you willing to do so? That\\u2019s something that everyone has to answer for themselves.

What\\u2019s your agency worth? www.tartle.co