FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is created through social media. It is when you feel left out after seeing other people having fun through their pictures and videos online and it makes you feel anxious. FOMO hasn't affected me too much, I try to just scroll through social media without really thinking about what's being posted. However, more recently, I did get acquainted with someone who I now deeply care about, but because of distance, things would be pretty rough while being up here. I'd get anxious whenever I'd see posts from this person and her friends because I wanted to be there with them. I think just in general I've felt this feeling. Sometimes my friends back home all go out to get dinner while I'm left in the voice chat alone since I'm not there to join them, and it makes me feel lonely and anxious to get home for the summer. I think just being so far away from home has increased FOMO for me, but I hope that changes once I move home. I've been working on doing my own thing and staying occupied, which has helped a great deal.

Photo Manipulation

I definitely think the US should have similar laws surrounding photo manipulation in advertising and media. I feel that despite having a "retouched photograph" watermark on advertising, products will still continue to sell. I feel that, to a certain degree, most people know that what we see in advertising isn't the real thing and that the people in ads usually are edited and touched up in some way. I think this could have a benefit for societal norms because it'll help people realize that what they see on there isn't real and could help convince them to do what they want for themselves instead of relying on so many different beauty products. It would be especially helpful for teaching younger kids about being comfortable being themselves and won't have them going to ridiculous lengths to look like the people in the ads, only to be disappointed. I, however, have mixed feelings about what Getty Images have done. I can understand having the policy set in place to avoid false body manipulation and other possibly controversial content, but I also feel that certain kinds of body manipulation can add a certain artistic style to images, such as super large eyes or a very short body to add comedic effect. However, in the case of stock images, I can understand not wanting to have any sort of manipulation for people as stock images are usually used for professional reasons.