"Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors house"

Its the absolute truth that in the age of Facebook and Twitter, people in our generation are completely consumed with social networking. Is all of this point and click activity bad for our mental health?

I was listening to talk radio this morning on the way to work and the topic was a recent University Study which mentioned that sites like Facebook are causing mental overload on our brains. According to the study, it is not comprenhensible to our brain to have more then 150 "friends". While some of us attempt to keep up "face" by having hundreds, even thousands of friends - its really not possible to do so. Read the article for more information. You can find it at www.infocera.com.

I would argue that this is the new way to "keep up with the Jones'". It's addicting to log on and "keep in touch" with all of our "so-called-friends" but really, what does this do for us? Each and every time I log on my news feed is full of what everyone is doing, from how many times they go to the bathroom and who is having another baby. I AM JUST AS GUILTY. And I will tell you, it is mentally exhausting.

We all possess ownership over our own insecurities and the things we wish we had, but do not have yet. Be that a ring, a wedding, a baby, a house, a better job, new appliances, or a new car. Each time I seem to evaluate my own goals and gain momentum on my own belief in their reality - I am suckered in by my own addiction to log on to this little crack addiction we affectionately call Facebook and I am instantly overwhelmed with everyone's status updates about how fast their lives seem to be advancing.

This is where the age old truth, "you only hear/see what you want to" comes to life. In the midst of all of the "We're pregnant", "We got the house", "I got a promotion with a raise", status updates are the "single relationship status'", "I just lost my job", "my friend just stabbed me in the back" status'.

I guess it's because mentally I only wish to put myself in the same category as those who are doing well for themselves and care about their future, but I never seem to see any of these "fall back" status updates - I instead only see what I sometimes (not always) feel is other's lives passing me by. Little do I know, or really care how any of these people came to be where they are at this very moment. For all I know, some of these "friends" who seem to have it all already could be up to their ears in debt, their lives full of sleepless nights and their marriage not so much the fairytale it seems to be. - Afterall, the people I am really talking about are the "friends" who really are not friends at all, but rather people I knew once upon a time at some point in my life, and we have since gone our separate ways and our only current common ground is the previously mentioned crackbook. So, really I have no idea what happens behind the closed door of their new home. So why should it or does it bother me?

I wouldn't call it jealousy. - As truth be told it's not their life I want. But as a member of a society that is full of self-driven 20 somethings who are each and everyday achieving more then the generations before them did - I see this "status crazed portal" as a mirror reflecting all of my own personal goals being achieved by others before me. It's not jealously, because I wanted it for myself and my family before it was posted by someone else - and although we wanted it at the same time, I wanted to acheive it first. Is this wrong? "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house". - I think I just answered my own question...

I know I'll get their eventually. I think the first thing I need to do though, is limit my "friends" list to that only of those I ACTUALLY consider friends. And second, focus on my own speed, not someone else's. - because afterall we don't know if that person took a short cut to get there, tooks someone else out to finish first, or maybe they just deserve it more, at this very minute, more then I do. But that is not to say that I don't deserve to eventually have it too.