Lesson 1 Digital Well-being
Joy of Missing Out
Part 1 FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
“Selena. SELENA!” “____,” I look up from my phone to discover my mom yelling at me.
She seems to be searching for an ____ to something.
“____?” I asked. She asked, “Did you not hear what I just said?”
No, I didn’t. I didn’t hear anything she ____.
I usually don’t hear a single word ____ to me by anyone.
And why is that? It’s because my eyes are ____ on my phone.
My mom always ____ me, “What is so interesting on your phone?”
I ____ know how to answer that because even I don’t know what’s so interesting on my phone.
I have a bad case of anxiety that comes from ____ checking my phone.
I spend most of my day on social media. I fear missing out on social ____.
I fear ____ being in the know of what everyone is discussing.
I fear not being in the know of ____ my friends are posting on social media.
My mom thinks I’m addicted to my ____.
Older people ____ teenagers like me have an addiction to their phones and computers.
But I wouldn’t say it’s an addiction to a device. It’s an addiction to social ____.
It’s an ____ to being online, or in other words, a fear of not being online.
Basically, I have severe FOMO, for which I’m in desperate need of a ____.
Maybe this spring ____ could be a chance to find one.
Part 2 My Two-week Detox
So it was time to ____ the plug. I grabbed my phone.
I swiped it ____ and stared at the social media icons dotting the screen.
I ____ the apps from my phone. Then I moved to my notebook computer.
I logged out of ____ of the social media sites. I felt an immediate sense of relief.
But soon after, I got restless. I don’t remember how long it was, but I stared at my phone screen in complete ____ for quite a while.
I called Jamie, and we chatted for about an ____.
But there’s only so much you can do over a voice ____.
We decided to meet later in the afternoon for a bike ____.
What ____ can I do on my phone? I lay on my bed even though I wasn’t sleepy.
I stayed there until I went out to meet Jamie. Throughout the day, it felt like things ____ down considerably.What a long day!
I ____ up late in the morning and reached for my phone.
I swiped my phone open only to remember my social media ____ were no longer there.
Old habits die hard. ____ breakfast, I felt a strong urge to go online, to which I didn’t want to give in.
So, I ____ to go out for a walk.
While walking in the park, I probably glanced at my phone 20 ____.
At one moment, I looked at the people around me, most of whom had their eyes glued to their ____.
I moved my gaze upward and noticed how purely blue the sky was, without a ____ cloud in sight.
All around the park, trees slowly ____ back and forth.
Soon I found ____ taking a couple of pictures of the peaceful scene.
After lunch, I took ____ my old guitar from under my bed.
At ____, it was because I was bored, but I ended up playing it all afternoon.
It ____ matter that I’m not really good at it.
It just ____ great that I was lost in doing something for several hours without getting interrupted by my phone.
I don’t know why, but today I momentarily let ____ my guard against social media.
As if bound by a spell, I logged into one of the ____ media sites, only to find that there was nothing interesting.
I had a ____ feeling of being at a place where I didn’t belong, which was quickly replaced by a sense of guilt.
I really shouldn’t ____ gone back to a social media site in the middle of my detox.
This was the first ____ my phone felt more like a brick in my pocket than a digital device.
I could already feel free from worrying about posting ____ and hoping it would get some likes.
At a gathering with my friends, it was fun to get asked over and over again about how I was surviving ____ social media.
____ said, “I don’t think I could give up social media for even one day.”
My immediate ____ was: Then you really need to give it up!
I didn’t actually say that, although I ____ to.
____ the end of the day, I reflected on my social media break and what things had been like before.
I realized that social media ____ taken some control of me.
It’s kind of silly that all I did was envy others for their perfectly happy moments in ____, dress up my everyday events, and think up ways to get others to like my posts.
From now on, I want to be in ____ of how I use something or do something, not the other way around.
Tomorrow, I will return to my social media activities, but in more careful and ____ ways.
I’m going to stick to just a couple of sites that I really need, while making absolutely sure that my ____ are in line with my well-being and happiness.