Social Media Doesn’t Give You FOMO

Somewhere between opening your phone and putting it down again, you decided you needed something you didn’t know existed an hour ago.

Maybe it was a skincare product.
A travel bag.
A whole new aesthetic for your apartment.
A restaurant you suddenly feel like you’re missing out on.

You weren’t planning to spend anything.

But the scroll had other plans.

Most people don’t even realise it’s happening to them. The tricky part is that it doesn’t feel like pressure when it’s happening. It just feels normal.

After a while, it’s hard to tell where your own wants end and the algorithm’s suggestions begin. 

Social media is slowly resetting what feels normal to you… by creating FOMO.

When you see the same thing, over and over, every single day, your brain eventually stops treating it as inspiration. It just becomes what life looks like.

Like this is how everyone else is already living – you’re the one who hasn’t caught up yet.

And once your baseline shifts, two things happen.

What you have starts feeling like not enough. And spending starts feeling like you’re just catching up.

The “treat yourself” layer

These days, buying something can feel like the answer to almost anything. 

Had a rough day? Treat yourself
Worked hard all week? Treat yourself

Before long, “treat yourself” stops feeling like an occasional indulgence. It becomes your default response.

On its own, none of those individual purchases are dramatic. The problem is the pattern underneath them. Because when you trace most of those “treat yourself” moments back, there’s usually a trigger right before them.

You saw someone’s haul and felt behind.
You watched a morning routine video and felt like yours wasn’t enough.
You scrolled through someone’s apartment and suddenly started thinking about all the things you’d like to change in yours.

That’s why these purchases can be so hard to spot.

They don’t feel impulsive. They feel justified.

The comparison piece

There’s another layer that runs underneath all of this.

You see someone your age – sometimes younger – with the wardrobe, the apartment, the trips, the lifestyle. And something in you quietly asks: Why don’t I have that yet?

What you’re not seeing is the context.

You don’t know how much they earn. You don’t know whether the trip was sponsored or the clothes were gifted. You don’t know if they’re paying for that lifestyle with debt. And you definitely don’t know what was happening behind the scenes long before they posted about it.

It’s so easy to forget all of that when you’re scrolling. 

Instead, you’re measuring your actual financial situation against a curated feed of someone else’s life.

And that’s an expensive comparison to be making.

So what do you actually do?

I’m not suggesting you get off social media.

Just put a little intentional distance between what you see and what you do with your money. Pay attention to how much of your spending starts with something you saw online.

A few things that actually help:

1. Start noticing what’s happening right before you shop.

Most impulse purchases have a trigger. You were scrolling. You were bored. You were stressed. You just watched someone else’s “what I bought this month” video.

The next time you feel the urge to buy something, see if you can spot the trigger first. Before you buy, pause for a minute and ask yourself: What made me want this right now?

You don’t have to talk yourself out of the purchase. Just get curious about what triggered it.

2. Give it 48 hours.

When you feel the urge to buy something, save it and come back to it in 48 hours.

If you still want it, then great. If not, you’ve just avoided spending money on something that only felt important in the moment.

3. Get clear on what you’re actually building. 

Write one financial goal down somewhere you’ll actually see it every day. Your savings target. Your investment number. Your debt payoff date. Whatever it may be.

When that’s sitting in front of you, spending money you didn’t plan to spend starts to sting. It feels like it’s coming directly out of that goal.

That friction matters. Use it.

4. Edit your feed like it’s a budget.

Spend 10 minutes this week going through the accounts you follow. For each one, ask yourself honestly: does this account inspire me, or does it make me feel like I need to spend money to keep up?

If it’s the latter, unfollow or mute. No explanation needed.

Your feed shapes how you think about money. You get to decide what stays in it.

The bigger picture

Financial success is not a lifestyle aesthetic.

It doesn’t look like a particular wardrobe or a particular apartment or a particular set of Sunday morning flat lays. It looks like having money that works for you. It looks like not panicking when something unexpected happens. It looks like being able to make choices from stability instead of pressure.

That version might not get 50,000 likes. But it makes your life a lot easier.

The goal isn’t to stop enjoying your money. Just make sure you’re buying things because you genuinely want them, not because you’ve seen them a hundred times on your feed. 

Join the accountability group

Your feed is built to make you spend. Staying focused on your financial goals when everything around you is encouraging you to spend is really hard to do alone.

This is exactly what the Don’t Go Broke Collective is for. The habits, the mindset, and the money decisions you don’t have to figure out alone.

We meet twice a month. We work through actual goals – spending, saving, investing, debt, building for the future – with guidance and a community of people navigating the same pressures you are.

Last year, members of the group collectively saved over $1.2 million.

They still had social media, busy lives, and all the same spending temptations everyone else has. What they also had, that not everyone else does, was a place to talk through money decisions and stay focused on their goals.

CTA: Join the Don’t Go Broke Collective

For my Nigerian community: You’ll need a VPN to access Skool. Make sure you have one set up before you join so you can get straight in.

CTA: Join from Nigeria

Until next time,

xoReni

P.S. I’m curious – what’s the last thing you bought because you saw it on your feed? No judgment at all. Hit reply and tell me.