Jealousy and #FOMO

Jealousy, what is it really? According to www.dictionary.com it is resentment against someone who is experiencing success or an advantage, mental anguish from fear or suspicion of a rival, or of someone’s unfaithfulness such as being jealous of your love (or even a friend) paying attention to someone else suspecting they are being unfaithful. Also jealously can be understood as guarding something diligently.

We have all felt it, grasping our hearts and minds, dominating our thoughts, motivating our words and actions. We have all felt the bondage that is jealousy or envy. Wanting what someone else has or even wanting what we perceive they have. Wanting to be part of something or included in something that we were not included in.  Social media has increased the chances of jealousy. Brought on by the fear of missing out. #FOMO (fear of missing out) is so common in our society today and is brought on by increased use of social media.

When contemplating jealousy and the fear of missing out in relation to my girls I came across a post on Things Teen. The post was actually a guest post from Girl Zone. In the post Madison Fraser explains:

​Anyone in any situation can feel social anxiety from social media posts. You could be traveling the world with your family, eating crepes in Paris and climbing the Swiss Alps and still feel like you’re missing out on the girls shopping trip back home. While it’s convenient that our Facebook, Twitters, and Instagrams allow us to be connected and stay in touch with anyone in the world, it’s hard to be grateful for the present moment when you’re consistently exposed to social obligations elsewhere.

How do you handle it? Jealousy and the fear of missing out can make us lose sleep, lose our appetite, miss out on moments in life we could have enjoyed.  

What do you do with it? How do we teach our children to live in their moment? I want to teach my girls to navigate social media while simultaneously living a healthy, content life. I want to find a way for my girls to be able to participate in social media while being loving, kind and not getting caught up in the #FOMO phenomenon taking place today.