Let's GOMO, Not FOMO
You must be wondering what GOMO and FOMO means, well I certainly did when I heard from Eventbrite about the fun fall project they organised this Autumn to promote GOMO and getting people away from Netflix and Chill and encouraging people to go out more often.
GOMO simply means Going Out More Often and FOMO Fear of Missing Out. I hope this blog post will be beneficial to readers or spark some ideas on how to GOMO!
As a finalist university student, I totally understand how we often have busy schedules and can be anti-social at times... I try to not be guilty of this...but basically the idea of GOMO really starts from having the interest in interacting with people and spending time with them. Interest is the number one key factor in my opinion which determines whether a person wants to go out or just stay home and get on social media or watch movies on Netflix. When people do get on social media, they realise how other people are having so much fun and then they feel like they have been missing out. But if they had put in some time to go out and interact with people, they would not have that missing out feeling. The funny thing is some people even feel pressured to post something online regularly to show and tell people how they are having a good time. It is not necessarily good or bad but the idea of genuinely having a good time going out and interacting with people is important. Human beings are created in a way that they like to socialise and interact with another and isolating yourself for prolonged periods of time will certainly be detrimental to your health and can promote negative feelings about yourself and about life in general. Do not ever underestimate of having a quick chat or catch up session even if you are busy. For me, its easier to catch up with friends when meeting up and speaking to them like on the phone or Skype rather than text messaging- my least favourite.
Now I would like to share with you some things I implement on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to ensure I GOMO and not FOMO.
Personally I enjoy reading and hearing about people's updates on blogs especially, I wish more people would blog sometimes or make their blog public but the truth is, it is so so so much better to hear updates from people in person rather than just by scrolling down social media and seeing what's new. Interacting with someone builds a bond and friendship with that person and like they always say, a thousand friends may not be enough, but one enemy is too many. I'll try not to deviate too much from this topic but what I am trying to say is that it is always nice to meet new people, new friends and interact and build good relationships with them. You never know how they will be helpful to you in some way in the future like updating you about a new job opening or a nice flat that you might end up staying or they might not be helpful in those ways but instead simply make you feel good about yourself and keep you happy and motivated.
Some of the social activities I do are in the evenings or in the weekends and include some of the following:
Here is a link to Eventbrite's event ticketing page selling online tickets for you to organise events or to get more involved.
GOMO simply means Going Out More Often and FOMO Fear of Missing Out. I hope this blog post will be beneficial to readers or spark some ideas on how to GOMO!
As a finalist university student, I totally understand how we often have busy schedules and can be anti-social at times... I try to not be guilty of this...but basically the idea of GOMO really starts from having the interest in interacting with people and spending time with them. Interest is the number one key factor in my opinion which determines whether a person wants to go out or just stay home and get on social media or watch movies on Netflix. When people do get on social media, they realise how other people are having so much fun and then they feel like they have been missing out. But if they had put in some time to go out and interact with people, they would not have that missing out feeling. The funny thing is some people even feel pressured to post something online regularly to show and tell people how they are having a good time. It is not necessarily good or bad but the idea of genuinely having a good time going out and interacting with people is important. Human beings are created in a way that they like to socialise and interact with another and isolating yourself for prolonged periods of time will certainly be detrimental to your health and can promote negative feelings about yourself and about life in general. Do not ever underestimate of having a quick chat or catch up session even if you are busy. For me, its easier to catch up with friends when meeting up and speaking to them like on the phone or Skype rather than text messaging- my least favourite.
Now I would like to share with you some things I implement on a daily/weekly/monthly basis to ensure I GOMO and not FOMO.
Personally I enjoy reading and hearing about people's updates on blogs especially, I wish more people would blog sometimes or make their blog public but the truth is, it is so so so much better to hear updates from people in person rather than just by scrolling down social media and seeing what's new. Interacting with someone builds a bond and friendship with that person and like they always say, a thousand friends may not be enough, but one enemy is too many. I'll try not to deviate too much from this topic but what I am trying to say is that it is always nice to meet new people, new friends and interact and build good relationships with them. You never know how they will be helpful to you in some way in the future like updating you about a new job opening or a nice flat that you might end up staying or they might not be helpful in those ways but instead simply make you feel good about yourself and keep you happy and motivated.
Some of the social activities I do are in the evenings or in the weekends and include some of the following:
- Organise and celebrate a friend's birthday. I think birthdays are the best time to organise a social gathering because its a happy event and people are always eager to meet for birthdays
- Join a society and meet new people who share the same interest, for me I do Yoga and Gym classes. Apart from keeping me healthy I enjoy meeting people who I can connect with and having a similar hobby helps us find common ground
- I build relationships in the flat I stay. I would go for welcome parties, Christmas dinners and BBQ parties that my hostel organises to interact and meet people who live in the same place as me. I know that the close friendships I've built upon starting university have mostly been at the hostel because it gets more personal when we are living together or close to each other, These neighbours are our immediate source of comfort or people we might see on a regular basis so I make time to meet and spend time with them.
- Invite friends over to your place for a sleepover or just simple be the one to ask them out, it does no harm to out your ego away. Ego eats up much of quality social life
- Do some things on a regular weekly or fortnightly basis, for instance watching a movie even on my laptop every two Friday nights with a friend helps to make me go out more often rather than trying to find a new time each week. A fixed time makes it a like a habit and is more likely to happen compared to something that needs to be planned each week.
- Put aside some social time each week in the weekends where you can unwind and relax, Within these hours, I will try to plan something with my friend like invite them over to cook lunch together and it is definitely more fun cooking with a friend.
- Visit people, I like to visit my cousins when I have a free whole weekend and play with the little one! Its nice just to be in a different environment at times and it keeps you refreshed. People enjoy it when you visit them, it makes them feel special because you put time to travel and come to their place so I certainly recommend this because I personally enjoy it when people visit me.
- Being an international student, I also have family and friends back home whom I want to keep in touch. It is so tricky trust me plus the enormous 7-8 hour time difference. I usually am able to skype with my family in the weekends because I am in college the whole day most weekdays and then able to skype with friends who go to bed a bit later like after 9pm even till 2am Malaysian time. University is busy as it is and keeping in touch requires consistent effort. What I believe is that true friendships will stay and GOMO will certainly encourage it.
- Plan short day trips or outings together like shopping sprees! Update each other when you know something new or if there is a discounted trip. Holidays together definitely helps you build even better relationships.
That is a summary of what I do in attempt to go out more often and build good relationships with family and friends. Hope these ideas might help encourage you to GOMO and live a balanced university life. Yes, uni life is so hectic, trust me I understand 150% and believe me, building good relationships with people is definitely a key motivator for myself to keep going and doing my best. I am always looking forward to the fun activities we plan with each other either at the end of the day, end of the week, end of the month or end of term. It all makes a difference but it is also important to know your priorities and ensure that you have time to get all your work done.
That's all for me so let's GOMO so we won't FOMO :)
Here is a link to Eventbrite's event ticketing page selling online tickets for you to organise events or to get more involved.
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