You could say I had the epiphany when, in the middle of a flight to Los Angeles – and a busy New York workday – the Wi-Fi stopped working. Two very odd things happened in quick succession. First: I did not fall out of the sky. Second: After recovering from the initial fury implosion, I worked more intently and productively than I had in ages.
What was this strange, unburdened feeling, I wondered, as I stepped off the plane hours later? Turns out the internet had a word for it already: JOMO.
JOMO is not a misspelling of “mojo” but, rather, stands for “joy of missing out.” The antithesis of FOMO (fear of missing out), JOMO is about disconnecting, opting out and being OK just where you are.
It’s a lot like that age-old wisdom about being present – only retrofitted for a world in which missing an email could be a fireable offense and deleting Bumble could mean you don’t go on a date for another three months. Like it or not, we need our technology devices; we just don’t need them as much as we think we do. JOMO is about finding that balance.
“To me, it’s about setting boundaries,” said Cara Wenig, 30, a sales rep and JOMO practitioner. “In my work, it is really important to respond quickly and to be on top of things, so it’s not as if I can completely unplug. But I can be more mindful about it.”