Lesson 1 Digital Well-being
Joy of Missing Out
Part 1 FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)
“Selena. ____!” “Yes,” I look up from my phone to discover my mom yelling at me.
She ____ to be searching for an answer 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 ____ hear a single word said to me by anyone.
And why is that? It’s because my ____ are fixed on my phone.
My mom always asks me, “What is so ____ on your phone?”
I never know how to answer that because ____ I don’t know what’s so interesting on my phone.
I have a bad case of anxiety that comes from not ____ my phone.
I spend most of my day on social ____. I fear missing out on social media.
I fear not ____ in the know of what everyone is discussing.
I fear not being in the ____ of what my friends are posting on social media.
My mom thinks I’m ____ to my phone.
Older ____ think teenagers like me have an addiction to their phones and computers.
But I wouldn’t say ____ an addiction to a device. It’s an addiction to social media.
It’s an addiction to ____ 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 ____.
____ this spring break could be a chance to find one.
Part 2 My Two-week Detox
So it was time to pull the plug. I ____ my phone.
I swiped it open and stared at the social ____ icons dotting the screen.
I removed the apps from my phone. Then I moved to my notebook ____.
I logged out of ____ of the social media sites. I felt an immediate sense of relief.
But soon ____, I got restless. I don’t remember how long it was, but I stared at my phone screen in complete confusion for quite a while.
I ____ Jamie, and we chatted for about an hour.
But there’s ____ so much you can do over a voice call.
We ____ to meet later in the afternoon for a bike ride.
What else can I do on my phone? I lay on my ____ even though I wasn’t sleepy.
I stayed there until I went out to meet Jamie. Throughout the day, it felt like things slowed down considerably.What a long ____!
I woke up late in the ____ and reached for my phone.
I swiped my phone open ____ to remember my social media apps were no longer there.
Old habits die hard. After breakfast, I felt a strong urge to go online, to which I didn’t want to ____ in.
So, I decided to go out for a ____.
While walking in the park, I probably glanced at my phone 20 ____.
At one moment, I ____ at the people around me, most of whom had their eyes glued to their phones.
I moved my gaze upward and noticed how purely ____ the sky was, without a single cloud in sight.
All around the park, trees slowly swayed back and ____.
Soon I found myself taking a couple of pictures of the peaceful ____.
After lunch, I took out my old guitar ____ under my bed.
At first, it was ____ I was bored, but I ended up playing it all afternoon.
It didn’t matter that I’m not really ____ at it.
It ____ felt great that I was lost in doing something for several hours without getting interrupted by my phone.
I don’t know why, but ____ I momentarily let down my guard against social media.
As if bound by a spell, I logged into ____ of the social media sites, only to find that there was nothing interesting.
I had a weird feeling of being at a place ____ I didn’t belong, which was quickly replaced by a sense of guilt.
I really shouldn’t have gone back to a social media site in the middle of my ____.
This was the first day my phone felt more ____ a brick in my pocket than a digital device.
I could ____ feel free from worrying about posting something 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.
Sam said, “I don’t think I could give up social ____ for even one day.”
My immediate thought was: Then ____ really need to give it up!
I ____ actually say that, although I wanted to.
Toward the end of the day, I reflected on my social media break and what things had been ____ before.
I realized that social ____ had taken some control of me.
It’s kind of silly that all I did was envy others for their perfectly happy ____ in life, dress up my everyday events, and think up ways to get others to like my posts.
____ now on, I want to be in control of how I use something or do something, not the other way around.
____, I will return to my social media activities, but in more careful and controlled ways.
I’m going to ____ to just a couple of sites that I really need, while making absolutely sure that my activities are in line with my well-being and happiness.