From Fear Of Missing Out To Fear Of Missing Good: A Qur’anic Reorientation Of Social Comparisson In The Digital Age

Abstract

The rapid expansion of social media has intensified Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), a psychological condition characterized by apprehension that others are experiencing rewarding activities from which one is absent. Although contemporary FOMO research has extensively examined its psychological determinants and behavioral consequences, its underlying value orientation and ethical dimensions remain comparatively underexplored, particularly from an Islamic perspective. This study aims to examine how Qur’anic discourse on social comparison, desire, worldly attraction, and competition can provide an ethical reorientation of FOMO in the digital age. Employing a qualitative conceptual design and tafsīr mawḍū’ī (thematic Qur’anic interpretation), the study analyzes selected Qur’anic verses, including Q.S. al-Nisā’ (4):32, Ṭāhā (20):131, al-Qaṣaṣ (28):79–80, al-Takāthur (102):1–2, al-Baqarah (2):148, and Āli ‘Imrān (3):133, in dialogue with contemporary FOMO theory. The findings indicate that the Qur’an addresses the mechanisms underlying FOMO through four ethical processes: regulating the gaze, regulating desire, reconstructing the meaning of success, and redirecting competition toward goodness. Based on this synthesis, the study proposes Fear of Missing Good (FOMG) as a conceptual reconstruction of Qur’anic moral urgency. Unlike FOMO, which is primarily oriented toward social comparison, external validation, and fear of exclusion, FOMG redirects human attention toward opportunities for goodness, forgiveness, moral growth, and spiritual flourishing. The study contributes a Qur’anically grounded ethical framework for understanding digital desire and suggests that Islamic ethics can complement psychological approaches to FOMO by addressing not only behavioral regulation but also the underlying construction of value and aspiration.