FOMO & Fabrication of Truth

The Past, the Present and Future for India

Afroz Chakure
3 min readFeb 7, 2023
Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash

We are living in a world of FOMO. The fear of missing out on opportunities, friends, relationships and instant success. We all want to cash out on all the opportunities that can lead us to the Bucket of gold on the other side of the rainbow.

Have you ever wondered, were things always like this? Did humans always have this desire to have everything at once or is this a new age problem that we need to deal with.

The Past

To those born after Independence, the goal was survival and leading a normal life without taking undue risks & unexpected surprises. Getting a good education, having a government job with a nice loving family was a dream for many and people felt arrived when their life provided these things to them.

A lot has changed for people who were born after Economic Liberalization of India in 1991.

Many people parked their money into things like Land and Gold (in form of Jewellery). People seldom traded into volatile things like stocks, bonds or commodities. But as India opened up to foreign investments, things started to change.

Technology changed everything

Post Liberalization, India saw a massive rise in the services industry and with the foreign investments grew strong as it saw a huge rise in middle class population across India.

So a largely Agriculture dependent nation changed to a leading Service Provider in the world. Big multinational companies who previously had left the country due to competition from local manufacturers, tried to enter the Indian market again but this time the laws favored their arrival.

Example includes, the famous re-arrival of Coco-cola in India in 1993, where it bought the Parle-owned drinks i.e. Gold Spot, Limca, Maaza and Thums Up for $60 million from owner Ramesh Chauhan and have never looked back since. The way Liberalisation opened doors for International Companies to come in and grow in India has been unprecedented!

The Present — Did Globalization make Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) so Rampant?

People want to earn their living fast. They see International Movie stars, Youtubers, Singers, musicians, magicians, politicians, entrepreneurs and athletes who are younger than them earning millions and want to replicate the same level of success.

Well the desire to have these things is not bad in itself but it takes us away from the real things that got these people the success in the first place.

Things like ‘Showing up daily to work’, ‘Hard-work’, ‘Saying No to multiple things’, ‘Sacrificing mental and physical health for achievement of the goal’ and ‘Persistence’ get forgotten in this glamorous mirage of entertainment.

Although Globalization itself cannot be blamed for this development but it certainly aided into its creation.

Future — Things you will see are “Mostly” fabricated

The real life which famous people live cannot be shown by any Vlog. You may capture some Tit Bits of their life but you can never tell whether the person has good or bad motives for you.

With fabulous editing and Camera skills you can make a normal human look like a million bucks on Video or through Pics but it is really a human bias that makes us believe that somehow People on your “Screens” are smarter than you. There is no evidence in the world that shows that all billionaires are smart or have a high IQ!

Never take life-advice from famous Rich People, Cult leaders, Religious Gurus, Raging Influencers, News Anchors (massive cringe) or Astrologers because these people only know a few things that made them enough money or helped them gain massive following. You shouldn’t take family, personal, relationship or financial decisions based on their suggestions. Just like you they have NO IDEA. Most of the time they are just figuring shit out just like us.

Conclusion

Be careful when following someone’s advice on the Internet because most times people have hidden intentions and they seldom have your interest in mind.

Nobody knows for sure what the future will look like, but the one who claims to have a solution to each and every problem of yours is certainly f*cking with you!

Most times we tend to give away the obvious by Trusting people just because of their stature.

So be smart my friend and don’t let them fool you!

Peace.

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