Epistemic Fomo Killed the Cat
Its Epistemically Maladaptive Consequences in Our Sociotechnical Environment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21461849 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mara Neijzen (0000-0003-4562-3984, University of Edinburgh, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publication date | 2025-12-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Erkenntnis (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0165-0106 • E-ISSN: 1572-8420 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s10670-025-01043-2 |
| OpenAlex | W4417042902 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
This paper constructs epistemic FOMO as an epistemic equivalent of the ubiquitous emotional experience of FOMO: a fear of missing out. As FOMO simpliciter entails a socially informed and negatively valenced affective state directed to missing out on potentially important experiential goods, epistemic FOMO is a socially informed and negatively valenced affective state directed to missing out on potentially important epistemic goods, i.e., information plausibly acquired by members of one’s social circle. Akin to epistemic emotions such as curiosity and interest, epistemic FOMO inherently motivates information acquisition. However, in doing so, it contributes to two epistemically detrimental phenomena in our contemporary sociotechnological environment. First, problematic news consumption, which entails an overconsumption or preoccupation with information on current events which may lead to news fatigue or even depressed or anxious moods, which in turn reduces information acquisition on current events and other topics. Second, epistemic FOMO promotes the formation of epistemic bubbles, where certain relevant voices are omitted from one’s epistemic environment. As I argue for the ubiquity of epistemic FOMO, as well as its epistemically maladaptive consequences, I suggest that this emotion ought to be taken seriously in future analyses of epistemic emotions and contemporary processes of online information acquisition
Epistemic community · Experiential learning · Ontology · Perspectivism · Sociotechnical system · Educational Strategies and Epistemologies · Epistemology, Ethics, and Metaphysics · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies
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| Highly cited | No |
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