“VUCA” SHOULD REPLACE “FOMO” IN 2024

Two current acronyms, FOMO (fear of missing out) and VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) will help define post-pandemic American society for years to come. FOMO will be remembered for our attempts to catch up from lost opportunities after the 2020 COVID-19 disaster/shutdown and our rush to return to normal.  VUCA provides the key to a productive future as we adjust to the challenging realities of a post-pandemic world.

Acronyms are helpful by condensing long phrases into shorter, easier-to-remember combinations of letters. For someone familiar with the meaning of an abbreviation, acronyms save space and are less distracting.  For a reader who is not acquainted with a four-letter acronym, its use can be frustrating.

The more familiar acronym, which seemed to appear everywhere in 2022-23, is FOMO, the” fear of missing out.” FOMO is an emotional response to the belief that other people are living better lives or that important opportunities are being missed. The acronym was added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2013. It became widely accepted after the pandemic as Americans took stock of what they had lost during the 2020 public health crisis. Millions of us caught a chronic case of FOMO after COVID-19 was under control.

Young people in particular felt they had been denied important years of normal maturation, social interaction, and fun activities. After all, for a 17 year old, the pandemic interruption was almost ten percent of their lives. When parents came down with Covid-19, teenagers found themselves responsible for shopping, cooking, and younger sibling childcare. Other young adults barely left their bedrooms for over a year.

For all ages, the boomerang effect from the pandemic was the desire to experience everything, all at once. Visiting friends and family, travel out of the country and concert performances like Taylor Swift all fed the outbreak of FOMO. The Federal American Rescue Plan provided three rounds of pandemic relief payments to families and workers. This helped pay for the FOMO phenomena.

The well-warn phrase of “keeping up with the Jones” did not convert easily to an acronym and never caught on after the pandemic. On the other hand, the acronym FOMO became so popular that like any hit television show it was responsible for numerous spinoffs. Some examples are FOBO or “fear of a better option;” FOBI or “fear of being insignificant;” YOLO, “you only live once;” and even FOJI “fear of joining in.”, for the wallflowers in the crowd.

The acronym VUCA is not as well known as FOMA. However, in my view, it represents an ideal method of coming to terms with our post pandemic political, economic, and social state of affairs. According to Wikipedia, the U.S. Army War College introduced VUCA as a shorthand for the “volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity” of conditions at the end of the Cold War. More recently, VUCA has gained popularity by strategic planners in efforts to explain and predict future events.

The VUCA framework was designed to provide a lens through which nations, organizations, and businesses could interpret their challenges and opportunities. One important principle that has developed from those who utilize VUCA is that while failure or missteps are usually not a disaster, failure to learn from failure is often catastrophic.

While VUCA was designed for application in business and government, I have found the concepts it represents a useful tool in daily life. First, “volatility” refers to how quickly things can change. In 2024, artificial intelligence is blowing up the business models of almost every occupation and providing new opportunities. Personally, I had to quickly learn new methods of conducting research and how to validate the accuracy of information generated by artificial intelligence.

Second, “uncertainty” is not knowing with any confidence what will happen in the future. Consider the anxiety faced by the airlines, restaurant owners, or for commercial real estate during the pandemic lockdown. In my case family members were forced to make dozens of decisions about what precautions to take. Today, the future of American democracy is uncertain.

Third, “complexity” forces us to consider the intricacy of interconnected forces like the stock market, world events, and the human body. During the pandemic, international supply chains broke down in ways no expert had considered. When I recently developed a hip flexor injury, my abnormal walk adversely affected other interrelated muscles.

Last, is “ambiguity,” which leads us to understand that problems may be confronted and solved in more than one way. It requires us to take the difficult path through the “fog of confusion” rather than accept the easy answer suggested by confirmation bias. A difficult ambiguity problem for me in 2024 has been the Israeli, Palestinian conflict. It has been a struggle to balance my conflicting values in making ethical judgments.

While FOMA is a psychological reaction to social media and the pandemic, VUCA is a shortcut to understanding and surviving in our modern, complex world. For many, it is tempting to use the imposing demands of VUCA as an excuse for avoiding action, planning, or direction. After all, it takes time and effort to develop an ever-changing updated strategy.

However, for those with an open mind and the willingness to be lifelong learners, VUCA encourages the necessary adaptation to succeed. In many respects, VUCA offers greater personal rewards than chasing a fleeting opportunity with FOMA.