Yifan Jin

Dr. Frances
ENG 111
Mar 19 2016

OUTLINE
The outline of the essay can be divided into four parts. The first part introduces
the history of American Dialect Society and the definition of WOTY. Then, the
meaning of FOMO is discussed in details. The second part analyzes FOMO is a new
psychological phenomenon that people are afraid of missing any matters, which is
directly related to the development of social media and smart phone, which is
elaborated by four supporting points. Firstly, FOMO is a psychological phenomenon.
Secondly, FOMO is originated from the prosperous development of social media.
Thirdly, FOMO is closely related to the development of the Internet and technology.
Fourthly, FOMO has directly influenced peoples life and created a social problem.
The third part fully demonstrates a main point that there is a trend that dialects are
developing with the appearance of new words, which can also be discussed in three
aspects. Firstly, dialects are developing very quickly. Secondly, new words are the
reflection of social problem. Thirdly, dialects and social problems are closely
connected. In the end of the essay, a conclusion is made to summarize the content of
the essay.
INTRODUCE
Dialect is a crucial branch of the language. Unlike the professional language,
dialect is closer to peoples life, which can reflect the changes and trends in daily

chores. Each year, American Dialect Society nominates Words of the Year to
summarize the social phenomenon and tendency, which attracts the attention of the
public. One of the nominations of the year of 2011 is FOMO. FOMO stands for
Fears of Missing Out, which describes a status of people afraid of missing out any
things. FOMO is a psychological habit, which develops in accordance with the
advancement of the social media and Internet.

Reflection of FOMO

In recent year, many academic reports are made to explain the reasons of FOMO
phenomenon. FOMO refers to the kind of the general fear and anxiety of losing or
missing something, which is also known as the outsider dilemma. Then the
nomination of WOTY has made it known to the public.
FOMO is one of the nominees of 2011WOTY held by American Dialect Society.
American Dialect Society was founded in 1889, mainly engaged in English and its
dialects in North America as well as other languages. Its members include scholars,
teachers, writers, linguists, university students and so on. It welcomes people in all
fields to attend the association. (Americandialect.org, 2016) It aims to demonstrate the
charm of the dialect. In 2010, it published a dictionary named the Dictionary of
American Regional English known as the Encyclopedia of American dialect. The
dictionary has a total of around 7.5 million entries, including a large number of rare

words in local dialect across the United States, which reflects the historical heritage
and rich diversity of American English. (Sina.com, 2009)
Each Year, American Dialect Society will nominate Words of the Year on the
official website and ask for votes from the public. The words are divided into eight
categories including most useful, most creative, most unnecessary, most outrageous,
most euphemistic, most likely to succeed, least likely to succeed, most notable
hashtag and most notable emoji. (Americandialect.org, 2016) After public votes,
American Dialect Society will publish the final Word of the Year.
Although FOMO was selected by ADS in 2011, it was first used many years
earlier by the writer Anne Stamel in 2002 and became popular by an article in
American Business Week in 2007. FOMO is appeared in accordance with the
development of smart phones and the technological platforms of social media. Social
media has provides a window to the public to focus on others life. In addition, the
creation of FOMO is also derived from authors experience. The creation of FOMO is
a reflection of the authors thoughts. Nowadays, some authors lose their own
thoughts, which is bad for the development of literature. (Barthes, 1977) The creation
of new words and the nomination of WOTY is a positive change.
While the creation of new words may be a positive change, the reason for the new
word may not be so positive. The meaning of FOMO refers a phenomenon that people
with FOMO are afraid to miss out on what's happening in the circle of their friends. If
they dont refresh Facebook, Twitter and Instagram continuously, they will have such
concerns. Smart phones allow a lot of people to hang on the Internet around the clock

to update messages on the social media and watch the dynamics of circle of friends.
They also look at what activities they can participate recently. Specific performance is
accepting any offer and afraid to miss any interpersonal activities. In addition, they
are afraid to miss the fresh gossip. If they havent access to the Internet for one or two
days to see these, they will feel that they have been isolate" for too long.
In the third place, FOMO has become a common habit of the public, regardless of
ages and gender, which can be illustrated in two dimensions.
On the one hand, it can be regarded as a psychological reliance. In the
overwhelming social network, people's decisions, feelings and emotions are
vulnerable to be affected, especially when browsing Facebook, Twitter and other
social networking sites. Those flashing prompt information, faithfully feedback and
the latest trend of friends make people form a habit to continuously pay attention to
the social media. People always suspect that they have missed something and fear that
they have made the wrong decision. At the moment, peace of mind is very easy to
change into the emotions of fear, anxiety, loss, considerations of gain and loss,
irritability and many other complex emotions.
On the other hand, FOMO is a consequence of the development of social media.
Social networks are always trying to improve the user's rate of return, according to
novelty, creativity and popularity of the publication. Social networks allow other users
to comment on photos and messages. Hundreds of thousands of users have been
addicted to social networking sites. Internet provides 24-hour online service, which
makes the human activity space greatly open and seemly eliminates the invisible

distance among the individuals. As the technology continues to penetrate the life, the
contact between people and technology is becoming closer. Technology is given more
rights, so that it can influence peoples decisions, emotions and feelings. Under such
circumstance, people should limit the effect of technology on daily life to avoid
turning the technology from a guest into a host.
There is a deep social reason for FOMO to be nominated as the word of the year
in 2011, because it has vividly described a common phenomenon in the public. With
the development of social media and the Internet, people are more addicted to the
fresh news among friends and fear of missing any activities. However, people should
adjust their attitudes and make use of the technology properly to avoid psychological
and social problems.
The phenomenon of FOMO has been presented to the public, but it is directly
related to the usage of social media and the development of smart phone technologies.
Nowadays, people are fond of the social media. With the development of the
technology, the smart phones become more and more popular now and it has provided
a new mode of communication. With the development of the Internet, people are more
likely to communicate online and learn about the news by searching on the Internet.
With the technology and internet development also take some passive aspect, now
people are afraid of missing something happened around them and they will become
very anxious, which can be described as FOMO. FOMO is a new word which is
aimed to describe this new phenomenon. Currently, FOMO is a new psychological
phenomenon that people are afraid of missing any matters, which is directly related to

the development of social media and smart phone.

FOMO means fears of missing out, which is a psychological phenomenon. People
are worried about losing some important things. (Riordan, Flett, Hunter, Scarf and
Conner, 2015) These things include the activity of their friends, the latest news and
some daily chores in peoples life. Nowadays, people are always worried about
missing something that is very important, and they fear that they will lose a chance to
communicate with their friends. For this phenomenon, there are mainly two reasons.
On the one hand, FOMO is originated from the prosperous development of social
media. With the development of social media, it has become an important tool for all
people. For students, they are the main users in our social. (Dossey, 2014) Most of
students like using smart phones. Because there are lots of apps available for
download and students can have the access to all kinds of social media like Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. For students, they can share their interests and communicate
with classmates. Among students, they communicating in social media become a new
atmosphere among them. For example, for college students, they are more accessible
to smart phones and the situation of FOMO is serious. (Alt, 2015) They always
refresh the news and post his feelings on the social media. They worry about they will
losing friends and the talking topics. In the school, they like talking the news on the
social media what they already read, and they have no choice but to turn to their
mobile phones from time to time. After school, they will also look for the news of
their friends and all the interesting news.
FOMO is common among young people, because young people are the main

users of the social media. For young people, they are more likely to be influenced
others. As a result, their minds are easier affected by others. They will become
nervous by the environment and communication what other people talk. FOMO has
become a social problem and a social phenomenon. As a result, more people will have
the habit of FOMO. The creation of FOMO is just a reflection of the problem and the
word is aimed to remind people of the problem.
On the other hand, FOMO is closely related to the development of the Internet
and technology. With Internet become general, more people have the access to the
Internet in many occasions and many times. Nowadays, people decrease their time to
go out with their friends, but they often have a talk on the Internet. As long as they are
availability to the Internet, they can carry out social communications with others.
Meanwhile, the development of technology has made a lot of changes in peoples life,
which directly makes the smart phone develop very quickly. An increasing number of
people will have the access to smart phones and FOMO are more easily to happen.
FOMO has directly influenced peoples life and created a social problem. People
have seriously affected by FOMO, which can also be divided into two aspects.
Firstly, young people become more worried and sometimes they drink more
alcohol. (Riordan, Flett, Hunter, Scarf and Conner, 2015) Once they have missed
something and lost some friends, they choose to drink alcohol to express their
feelings. Therefore, FOMO has increased pressure on young people. FOMO also
leads to the alcohol-related problem. (Riordan, Flett, Hunter, Scarf and Conner, 2015)
Secondly, people are not satisfaction with their life. (Dossey, 2014) FOMO has

added a lot of anxious on peoples life. They will complain about life and be
depressed about missing somethings. Everything has two coins, Smart phones have
brought convenience to peoples life, but smart phones also give a lot of discontented
on peoples mind.
In a nutshell, FOMO has become a social problem. The reasons of FOMO are due
to the development of social media, the Internet and technology. The results of FOMO
are also serious. FOMO has not only led to alcohol-related problem but also make
people unhappy in their life. Therefore, the creation of FOMO is good, which has
provided a way for people to think about the way to deal with the phenomenon of
FOMO and find ways to avoid be influenced by FOMO.
From the analysis of FOMO, it can be inferred that FOMO has greatly influenced
peoples life. For this phenomenon, people should have a clear and positive positon.
Nowadays, there is a trend that dialects are developing and many new words are come
to peoples life. FOMO is just a case of this situation. With the development of social
media, more and more people are addicted to this kind of communication channels. At
the same time, dialects are also developed quickly and a lot of new words are made
English language more vivid. This is a good trend and these new words keep pace
with the time. Languages are closely connected with social problems.
First and foremost, dialects have been greatly developed by the new words.
Dialects have been more important with the appearance of these words that describe
new social problems in the society. The society is changing and the meaning of words
is also changed. Nowadays, these words have a lot of different meanings. Sometimes,

a words different meanings are not connected with each other in different fields. In
addition, new words often come from social media like Facebook (Kao and Craigie,
2014), because people like creating new words. This situation is very common in
English because in different fields and different situations, a word can have a different
meaning.
These new words have a lot of features that different from common words. For
example, ghost, one of the Nominations for 2015 WOTY, is a verb that refers to
abruptly end a relationship by cutting off communication, especially online.
(Americandialect.org, 2016) In this case, the meaning of ghost has changed. These
new words are creative by people. These people also focus on the appearance of new
social phenomenon and then they have created these words. These people who like
creating new words are concerned about the changes in the society. Meanwhile, these
words are different from the original words. They dont have a lot of grammar usage.
Different words are just combined together to show one meaning. For example, ZFG,
another nomination of the 2015 WOTY, is a combination of zero fucks given, which
means indication of supreme indifference.(Americandialect.org, 2016)With these
words are come to our life, English dialects have been accepted by ordinary people
and they likeusing new words to communicate with others and they are happy with
the trend. In addition, these words are also a combination of a few letters and the
length of words and phrases are always short. A lot of new words are just the
abbreviation of the first letter of the phrases and words. In a word, the appearance of
new words has allowed people to express their ideas more conveniently and freely.

In the second place, the addiction of social media is also a new problem, due to
appearance of social media. For example, FOMO is a reflection of addiction of social
media. People always guess that they have missed something and fear that they have
made the wrong decision. At the moment, peace of mind is very easy to change into
the emotions of fear, anxiety, loss, considerations of gain and loss, irritability and
many other complex emotions. This situation is serious and also influenced peoples
life. Like FOMO, a lot of new words are the reflection of the society. (Zhou and Fan,
2013) Another case is the usage of ghost, which demonstrates a phenomenon that
people

could

end

relationship

suddenly

by

means

of

the

Internet.

(Americandialect.org, 2016)There are lots of positive changes and have a lot negative
aspects. Therefore, there many new words and dialects represent the negative and
positive changes.
Like social media, young teenagers are very easily being influenced by these
words. (Brunswick News) Therefore, the function of these words isto help people
know about the problems in the society. For example, FOMO is used to remind people
about the consequences of the addiction to the social media. FOMO has become a
psychological problem and the creation of the word is timely to reflect the
phenomenon of peoples addiction to the social media. Meanwhile, it is also a lesson
to young teenagers pay more attention to their behaviors. For those students who are
studying English as a foreign language, dialects and news words are very useful to
them. (Kao and Craigie, 2014) In the current society, a lot of young teenagers are
interested in smart phones and social media. (O'Keeffe and Clarke-Pearson, 2011)

They have hardly communicated with their friends face to face. They spend much
time online and they often conduct many things online, which is not beneficial to their
growth. The problem of social media addiction is also very important for all people
because each one is influenced by others. Some peoples behaviors will change
others behaviors. As a result, the new words have been created like FOMO can
remind people to focus on their actions and daily activities. The purpose of these
words is always good and positive.
Thirdly, dialect is directly linked to the changes of the society. The new words
represent different fields like gender, occupation, age, drug, homosexuality and rock.
(Zhou and Fan, 2013) The article of A Sociolinguistic Study of American Slang
points out that American slang refers to American culture and the study of American
slang helps people more familiar about American culture and society. These topics are
the focus of the whole society. There are lots controversial problems related to these
topics. There are also a lot of new trends that happen every day.
These words have been accepted by the society and people are welcome these
new words. There are two reasons for the close connection. On the one hand, people
are more likely to accept the changes in the society regardless that these changes are
positive or negative. The changes will directly influence peoples life. (Brunswick
News, 2009) Even worse, these changes will form a new culture. The culture will
represent the changes in the society. On the other hand, these words are easily to be
remembered due to its short length and simple spelling. In a short moment, people
will deeply remember these words and speak these words in their daily life. It is a

good phenomenon and it is likely to be continued.

In a nutshell, FOMO is a good thing for all the development of the society. It has
increase a lot of new words to the dialect language. English can also absorb new
things in the society. Meanwhile, dialect also reflects the new situation in the public.
Therefore, language is closely related to the development and the vocabulary is
increased by peoples creativity.
In the final analysis, FOMO is a product in accordance with the development of
social media and smart phones, which has changed peoples ways of communication
and peoples social activities. Currently, FOMO is not only limited to individuals but
also related to all people in the society and FOMO has become a social problem. The
creation of the word is just a reflection of such social problem. FOMO is widespread
among young people like college students. In addition, new words like FOMO have
enriched the dialects of English. These words are more likely to be accepted by people
because these words are simple and easily to be remembered. Each year, American
Dialect Society holds the nomination for the word of the year, which is a positive
aspect of promoting the development of American dialect. Through this way, a lot of
social problems like FOMO can be known by the public. The creation of new words
can also arouse the public attention to these social problems, which is positive to
peoples life.

Works Cited
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Americandialect.org. Nominations for 2015 Word of the Year posted.

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Barthes, R. The Death of the Author. Roland Barthes & Stephen Heath Image,
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Brunswick News, Adkison Lindsey, Washington, Ga. Slang gives teens their own
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Dossey, L. FOMO, digital dementia, and our dangerous experiment. Explore the
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Frederic G.Cassidy. The Publication of the Dictionary of American Regional

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