In the context of mental health issues FOMO is one of the newest, anxiety causing, stressors that impact the mental health of today's young digital natives for whom social media plays such an important role in identity building. The NOMO FOMO project proposes 'unpacking' the term FOMO to see what lies beneath and provides a toolkit of interactive learning resources to address the elements identified. In a survey with young adults the following themes were commonly identified in all partner countries as being the basis for FOMO anxiety. Fear of being unpopular; uninteresting; unattractive; unworthy; unfriendly; unkind; uncaring; are just a sample of the 12 most common themes that emerged. Addressing these themes, partners piloted NOMO FOMO outputs in 7 local settings where the partners are based. Educational games are not a new phenomenon, and have been a part of the educational landscape since the development of the abacus and before. In today's ubiquitous technology environment online gaming, especially on smartphones has grown exponentially and a survey conducted by Nielsen in the USA found that for young digital natives the amount of time spent playing games on their smartphone is 12 times more than the time they spend talking or texting. It is clear that smartphones are the device of choice for young digital natives and responding to this the NOMO FOMO consortium have developed a completely new smartphone based learning experience that promotes positive mental health. Young adults have the latest tech gadgets in their palms, are hyper-connected, and eager to innovate. They live in an online 'bubble' surrounded by technology. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok and a whole range of other social media platforms are the new street corners where today's digital natives 'hang out'. They are the perfect, familiar and attractive places to engage young adults and address the impact of social media on mental health. Infographics have been steadily gaining popularity, both in digital and print formats in organizations and education. They are clear, effective and visually engaging. They present a variety of information while retaining the attention of the viewer. Today’s young adults are inundated with information every day and opportunities for distraction are increasing. Young adults need tools to easily digest information while also being offered the opportunity to develop key skills in a digital environment where they are most at home. The NOMO FOMO consortium partners created 12 interactive infographics each one addressing one of the key themes associated with FOMO anxiety and stress which directly impact mental health. Each individual interactive infographic resource comprises a series of 4 different but related learning elements (posters or QR, video, quiz, web quest & case study). Each element has clear learning outcomes to be achieved. Research conducted to inform this proposal with young digital natives found that they do not use up to 60% of the apps that they have downloaded and the vast majority of them expressed an unwillingness to download new apps due to the data mining activities of app developers. For this reason the resources developed present and accessed directly through the camera on their smartphone through the built in QR code reader. Partners developed an in-service training programme for front-line adult educators with three specific elements namely Unpacking FOMO, building the digital skills of front-line adult educators to build their own interactive infographics using software programmes like PowToon, StoryBoardThat, VideoScribe, KAHOOT, LearningApps, Google Forms, etc. and supporting adult educators to capitalize on the ubiquity of online environments for working with their target group. A suite of 12 interactive infographics addressing key thematic issues directly relating to FOMO were developed 70 front-line adult educators and young workers completed the piloting of the in-service training 49 young adults and stakeholders completed the peer leadership training 2500 young adults engaged with the interactive infographics and the NOMO FOMO MOOC (this IO was not granted but the website is open for the users)
In the context of mental health issues FOMO is one of the newest, anxiety causing, stressors that impact the mental health of today's young digital natives for whom social media plays such an important role in identity building. The NOMO FOMO project proposes 'unpacking' the term FOMO to see what lies beneath and provide a toolkit of interactive learning resources to address the elements identified. In a survey with young adults the following themes were commonly identified in all partner countries as being the basis for FOMO anxiety. Fear of being unpopular; uninteresting; unattractive; unworthy; unfriendly; unkind; uncaring; are just a sample of the 12 most common themes that emerged. Therefore, the objective achieved was to create a tool, designed in an attractive language for the target group such as young adults, according to their digital life, accessible from any device within reach, and to help them understand the problem of suffering from FOMO, such as help and formalize them, in addition to specific training in FOMO and digital skills for adult educators, with the aim of having a very useful tool to work with the FOMO problem.
Health at a Glance: Europe 2018 says that mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety disorders and alcohol and drug use disorders, affect more than one in six people across the European Union in any given year. In the context of mental health issues FOMO is one of the newest, anxiety causing, stressors that impact the mental health of today's young digital natives for whom social media plays such an important role in identity building. Fear of being unpopular; uninteresting; unattractive; unworthy; unfriendly; unkind; uncaring; are just a sample of the 12 most common themes that emerged. Addressing these themes, partners will pilot NOMO FOMO: 1. Provide essential training and support to front-line adult educators in both pedagogic and resource areas. 2. Include a peer leadership training programme. 3. Develop the proposed Interactive Infographics as attractive, easy to use, intuitive, and available on demand anytime, anywhere. 4. Ensure that tools developed are progression based educational resources. 5. Direct its focus specifically at the problem of mental health in social media contexts and not duplicate already existing programmes. 6. Provide links to mainstream service providers.