错失恐惧症

你是不是狂热地追赶时尚？在我们当中有很多人迷恋最新的手机游戏和玩具，以至于沉浸在这些游戏的虚幻世界中。我们为什么会迷恋虚拟游戏和昙花一现的潮流呢？

 

Have you got an addictive¹ nature? Are you unable to stop yourself joining in with the latest obsession² for collecting or doing something? This probably describes most of us because it's only human nature to not want to miss out on something that everyone else is talking about.

 

Most fads³ arrive suddenly and enthusiasm for them spreads quickly. They become a talking point on social media; we read about them, give them a try and, before we know it, we are hooked. In the past, these have been objects such as toys and games. Maybe you were the proud owner of a Rubik's cube, which became the best-selling toy of all time – around 350 million have been sold so far.

 

Now, technology is driving the latest crazes. In some parts of the world, flavour of the month is Pokémon Go – a game that uses augmented⁴ reality, where little virtual monsters pop up onto your phone and you have to catch them. And games such as Angry Birds and Minecraft are other crazes, available on smartphones and tablets, that have been hard to put down.

 

Our keeness to participate in crazes has been analysed by experts. One of them, Dr Ben Michaelis, a clinical psychologist, explains that we want to experience the benefit that another person, or group of people, have experienced from something and this "hooks into an ancient evolutionary⁵ fear of being left behind or abandoned by our tribes"; we have to join in or lose out.

 

Although becoming addicted⁶ to a computer game might not seem like a 'benefit', it can at least give you credibility or popularity among your friends. It allows you to learn new skills and gives you something to talk about at parties!

 

But fashions come and go and most fads are just a flash in the pan so if one of them is not your cup of tea, don't worry: there'll be a new craze arriving very soon. Look at the addiction⁷ to the unsophisticated loom⁸ bands – those little rubber bands you could make jewellery and other things out of. For a brief period they were the must-have item for any schoolchild, now they're the bargain bucket item in a discount shop or worse still, trash filling up our landfill sites! What crazes have you been addicted to?

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