FOMO trap of crypto Twitter, and the upcoming ROMO art in silence.

Matti

2023-06-17 10:42

Read this article in 13 Minutes

FOMO is a lifestyle, but it's not the only lifestyle. There's also ROMO, but ROMO isn't something that we must follow step by step.

Original Title: "The Art of ROMO"

Author: MATTI

Translation: Kxp, BlockBeats

After reading Gstaad Guy's post, as a practitioner in the encryption industry, I decided to write an article about ROMO - Relief Of Missing Out. Although my version may differ, he raised a good question:

"How could one possibly be afraid of missing a terrible party and terrible company?"

Fear of missing out is a natural instinct of the mind. In the world of the internet, which is filled with cheap dopamine, has FOMO become an inevitable phenomenon? Is this really a new thing? The following paragraphs contain some philosophical discussions:

Caspar David Friedrich's ROMO

FOMO and dopamine are closely related. It is a trap that humans are naturally prone to. In the past, FOMO may have led you to learn about your neighbor's new crop rotation techniques, but today it is associated with social media-induced groupthink.

After transforming the world from scarcity to abundance, blindly following FOMO has become a suboptimal survival strategy for humans. The ability to survive has turned into an excessive indulgence, whether it is for food or information.

FOMO is a way of life, but it is not the only way of life - there is also ROMO; but ROMO is not something that we must follow step by step. The beauty of ROMO is that it cannot be deliberately practiced, because ROMO is a natural indifference that comes with us from birth.

Desire, Imitation, and FOMO

Most social media feeds, such as Twitter's message push, are like an endless banquet. Countless participants try to instill in you what they think is important (mainly for recognition, including likes, etc.).

Although I occasionally participate in activities such as Twitter, I am increasingly aware that although countless opinions emerge every second on the screen, it is actually becoming more and more empty.

When browsing through updates, I see two types of participants - influential individuals and useful fools, who have formed a perfect symbiotic relationship. Influential individuals begin by publishing content, and once they discover what useful fools like, they will double their efforts.

Influential people are adored by their followers, who direct the attention of useful fools (i.e. fans) towards self-obsession. They post content they believe will garner more attention - a manifestation of narcissistic self-desire.

Desire is the result of imitation, and most desires today are misguided. They are driven by global influencer shows (or Crypto Twitter groups in your area) dynamically propagated by social media, which will make you crave everything you see online from the bottom of your heart. As the number of options increases, the degree of FOMO also increases.

Useful idiots and influential people on social media platforms are increasingly disconnected from social interaction, and they don't even realize it. Instead, they are trapped in a feedback loop of self-desire, constantly chasing returns. Social media is essentially non-social, or at best, pseudo-social.

Interpersonal interaction has become purely a performance.

These social media updates are no different from a bad company gathering. It's not real socializing, but rather a ritual of imitation and self-validation, with the goal of seeking reward (whether good or bad). Therefore, it's a trap of FOMO.

Life has become an uncontrollable and endless hamster wheel, hiding behind the desire to mislead, lurking behind the information seen with the next swipe of our fingers. We hunt for prey in the jungle like predators, but it doesn't take much effort - just a swipe of our fingers to the next piece of information.

The natural curiosity of human beings is originally meant for exploration and discovery, and it is a reward in itself. However, under the influence of modern social media, people crave for the certainty of the next dopamine rush, believing that it is hidden behind the next swipe of their fingers. This pursuit has turned into a process of chasing rewards themselves, rather than truly seeking satisfaction in exploration and curiosity.

Competition is Imitation

Competition is a way to prove our own value. We are interested in competition because when we see others doing the same thing as us, we feel affirmed and recognized. Competition is a blind spot for us, and we are easily attracted to it.

Once people become part of a growing circle, it becomes a trap they cannot escape. The gravity of this black hole is too strong, as it brings returns in both finance and social aspects. However, at the same time, it also hides a cost, imposing destructive limitations on thinking.

Your thinking forces you to participate in those terrible gatherings and meet terrible companions, and you have no chance to go beyond current thinking. When you are trapped in a noisy room where people are constantly chasing FOMO, you cannot experience the tranquility of cultivating secret thoughts.

The Erasmus in the painting is believed to be writing down his secret thoughts. If he had the chance, would he tweet it out?

If you already feel trapped and captured by FOMO, there is no antidote that can bring ROMO. Most importantly, ROMO should not be the ideal that people pursue, because then it is just a simple substitute for FOMO; a useless anti-FOMOism.

ROMO cannot be flexibly applied because it is only a replacement for FOMO for the purpose of display, becoming a kind of anti-FOMO that is more related to self-image creation. People use this to express: "Look at me, I am a unique person!"

FOMO and ROMO are essentially opposite, but they cannot completely replace each other. They have different meanings and impacts on the psychological and emotional levels.

FOMO is a function related to selectivity, which means that we have many choices and are afraid of missing out on some of them. In contrast, ROMO is an innocent understanding, which means that we understand things in a naive way without needing to be explicitly aware of our understanding. In other words, ROMO allows us to no longer feel the need to participate in everything and to choose to participate or not more calmly.

ROMO will come quietly

When will a person feel FOMO and when will they not? For example, they feel FOMO because they missed a gathering. The reason they feel FOMO is because they believe it is something they should have done.

Understanding that chasing after anything will not yield any practical gains is the key to starting everything. Then, if a person is lucky, they can naturally become disinterested in the large-scale FOMO and thus rid themselves of this affliction.

People suddenly realize that witches or treasures do not exist, they are just a ritual constructed by society, and you are only forced to participate because of the people around you.

In an environment filled with various stimuli, people are inevitably drawn into it. When there are too many things and choices around us, we often feel a desire to have all the choices while also feeling that these choices can be easily abandoned.

Our thinking tends to imitate others, but humans are not forced to do so. FOMO is the pursuit of rewards, seeking things that are hoped to bring satisfaction and happiness. However, ROMO is a mindset that arises from recognizing that rewards cannot truly bring relief. ROMO is not a positive pursuit, but a quiet, natural understanding that means we no longer pursue the illusory comfort that rewards bring, but understand from the depths of our hearts that true relief does not depend on these rewards.

Those who are looking for a way out have the ability to see when imitation and competition take the lead. Then they have the ability to avoid FOMO; recognize the truth of witch or treasure hunting actions. But this does not mean replacing FOMO with ROMO, nor does it mean taking any action.

In the process of pursuing liberation, we find that there is no single method that can completely eliminate all constraints. However, what is bittersweet is that when we understand and accept this fact, we actually gain a new way. This method comes from our deep understanding in our hearts, an implicit cognition that allows us to find a subtle freedom for a period of time, which arises from the conflicts and contradictions within us.

That is ROMO, a quiet moment that slipped by unnoticed.