Why do you check social media? Is it to keep up with everything that your friends and family are doing? Is it to find new trendy spots to eat? Regardless of the reason, you may find yourself with different degrees of envy or discomfort after a quick look at your phone. Then you might be suffering from a phenomenon known as “Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). ”

While the phenomenon of FOMO can be traced back for centuries, it had never been the issue as it is today, causing widespread discussion and research. This rise in checking social media is naturally connected to the increasing leading position that social media holds over our lives. Every time someone opens their WeChat Moments, Facebook, Twitter... etc. , they are bombarded with the highlight reels of other peoples' lives. A sunny beach, delicious-looking food, a super cute kitten-they are all uplifting photos, yet they're very likely to bring about more unhappiness than joy. You see, the first thought to come out of your mind may be “Wow, that's so cool/delicious/cute”, but then it takes a hard U-turn. You're thinking: “I wish I were there” or “my life is so boring compared to his/hers.” The more you see, the more likely you are to have these negative feelings.

What's worse is the habit many people have of turning to social media in search of happiness when they are feeling down, not realizing that they are just going to end up in a negative cycle of endless disappointment. Montesquieu once said: “If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”

FOMO will go hand in hand with dissatisfaction and envy. Appreciate what you already have, because someone else out there in the world would gladly give everything to be you.

In recent years, much of my life as a consumer has shifted to what I like to call background. As I’ve subscribed to more apps and streaming platforms, significant sums of my money tend to slip away each month without my ever thinking about it.

Think of it as an automated trade. Spending without the trouble of spending. Acquaint ion without action. Or thought.

But while this flood of subscriptions was sold to me on the condition that it would make my life more trouble-free, there was a certain shock I felt upon discovering how much I was spending without realizing each month ($179.45).

You see, the thing about background spending is that it tends to happen, well, in the background without your full attention. And there lies the point.

“Hand over your credit card details and let us take care of the rest,” these companies promote. But by again sing their name, we’ve become lazy, positive consumers. And this laziness breeds (导致) more laziness because most of us can’t be bothered with conducting regular reviews of our subscription spending. We’re too lazy to even notice or cancel it!

I know it’s not just me who is suddenly living life as a smart-braised subscriber. The average consumer spends $273 per month on subscriptions, according to a 2021 study of 2,500 by digital services firm West Morose. Not a single person surveyed knew what his actually monthly spending was.

It’s understandable why this model is so attractive to businesses. As companies questioned traditional advertising models, subscription offered the promise of “selling once and earning forever.” And while subscription services have been around for decades (think Wine of the Month Club), more customers have been willing to sign up thanks to the widespread availability of smartphones and the increasing ease of home delivery.

While these subscription promise ease and happiness, not all of us are satisfied. Last year, the Kameny Institute found 40 percent of consumer believe they have too many subscriptions. Almost half of us also think we pay too much for streaming video-on-demand subscriptions.

Think about a remote control. Something so simple in function is seemingly capable of invisible magic to most of us. Only those with an engineering and electronics background probably have any real idea of why a remote control works. The rest of us just assume it should. And the longer a given technology exists, the more we take it for granted.

Consider for a moment a split screen showing modern remote control users versus the first remote control users: the original users would be carefully aiming the remote directly at the television, reading the names of the buttons to find the right one, and intentionally pressing the button with a force that adds nothing to the effectiveness of the device. The modern users would be leaning on a sofa, pointing the remote any which way, and instinctively feeling for the button they desired, intuiting (凭直觉知道) its size, shape, and position on the remote.

Humans are known for being handy with tools, so it is no surprise that we get so comfortable with our technology. However, as we become increasingly comfortable with how to use new technologies, we become less aware of how they work. Most people who use modern technology know nothing of its underlying science. They have spent neither mental nor financial resources on its development. And yet, rather than be humbled by its originality, we consumers often become unfairly demanding of what our technology should do for us.

Many of the landmark inventions of the twentieth century followed predictable tracks: initial versions of each technology (television, video games, computers, cell phones, etc.) succeeded in impressing the general public. Then, these wonderful new inventions quickly became commonplace. Soon, the focus of consumer attitudes towards them changed from gratitude with respect to discriminating preference.

Televisions needed to be bigger and have a higher resolution. Video games needed to be more realistic. Computers needed to be more powerful yet smaller in size. Cell phones needed to be smaller yet capable of performing other tasks such as taking pictures, accessing the Internet, and even playing movies.

For children of the last twenty years born into this modern life, these technological marvels seem like elements of the periodic table: a given ingredient that is simply part of the universe. Younger generations don’t even try to imagine life without modern conveniences. They do not appreciate the unprecedented (史无前例的) technology that is in their possession; rather, they complain about the ways in which it fails to live up to ideal expectations. “My digital video recorder at home doesn’t allow me to program it from my computer at work.” “It’s taking too long for this interactive map to display on my portable GPS”.

If it sounds as though we’re never satisfied, we aren’t. Of course, our complaints do actually motivate engineers to continually refine their products. After all, at the root of our tool-making instinct is the notion that “there must be a better way.” Thus, the shortcomings of any current version of technology are pinned on the limitations of its designers, and the expectation is that someone, somewhere is working on how to make the existing product even better.