the digital generation suffers from a symptom called the fear of missing out without the daily dose of like share status and picture updates people feel frustrated even inadequate shikha shah wonders whether we are looking at a robotic future ahead where the machine will be our bff dad we are going on a family holiday to europe daughter wow dad but theres one condition holiday time will be strictly family time no phones ipads or laptops allowed daughter thats not done i cannot stay detached from my friends and the world just because we are going on a holiday ts the most common argument in most families today no matter how hard one tries its an irresistible need these days to know what everyone is up to all the time be it friends family acquaintances colleagues exes or even a total stranger a better part of the day is spent checking statuses likes comments and pictures uploaded on social networking sites and a day without gadgets that connect people 24x7 almost drives people insane the fingertip generation simply cant survive without instant information trivial or earthshattering petty or important you may have pondered on the matter but now theres a study that confirms this belief according to the connecting and communicating online state of social media study 2012 62 per cent of adults who are currently a member of more than one social networking site say they keep an eye on sites because they dont want to miss out on anything the study also says that this fear of missing out fomo is so severe that nearly 40 per cent of these people would rather undertake a potentially painful activity like reading war and peace at one go do their taxes get a root canal even spend a night in jail before even thinking of giving up their social networking profiles eighty per cent teens sleep with their mobile phones near their pillows and send thousands of text messages every day even before they get out of bed says natasha dcosta 19 a college student its next to impossible to resist checking facebook twitter or my bbm every two minutes through them i get to know exactly what my friends are doing at what time where and with whom it may partly be curiosity considering that people have a voracious appetite for gossip or general inquisitiveness about other peoples lives but when this kind of inquisitiveness turns into obsession fomo creeps in dcosta explains further i need to be available to my friends 24x7 what if one of them breaks up with her boyfriend or gets into an argument with her parents they may need instant solace most of us cannot control the urge to text or call while driving and interrupt one call to take another without knowing whos on the line there are nights when i am unable to sleep due to insecurity i wake up in the wee hours of morning to check