The fear of missing out is raising our risk of stampedes

It was on the night of 3 June that Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), a cricket team with a vast fan following, finally succeeded in lifting their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy after a wait of 18 long years.

- ANUKARAN KHANNA & ASHISH GUPTA

That this win had sent waves of excitement around the city of Bengaluru was obvious. Many fans appeared delirious with joy. But few could have expected that their celebrations would end in tragedy the very next day.

A victory procession that seems to have been organized in a hurry led crowds of fans thronging to a stadium in Bengaluru, where the gathering unexpectedly swelled beyond the ability of the security personnel to handle, resulting in a stampede that took several lives and left many injured.

What was meant to be a moment of triumph turned into a gloomy day that no one wants to remember. Like after every such incident, a committee was formed to probe its causes. But a deeper question emerges: Is this stampede another example of how FOMO—or the 'fear of missing out'—dictates our actions in this age of keeping up with social media feeds?

FOMO refers to the worry people experience when they believe they are losing out on a significant or rewarding experience. While it is mostly linked with social media, it also influences real-world behaviour, such as attending mass events.