You know the feeling you get when you log onto Facebook and you see a new album posted by a friend’s younger sibling, and it’s their wedding pictures. Or when there’s a status update from an ex saying that he’s taking his girlfriend to Cabo. Or there are someone’s engagement party pictures or baby shower pictures. How does it make you feel?

I’m always happy when I see that people are happy and doing well, but secretly, I’m actually a jealous crazy person. But it’s not that I’m not happy with my life right now, because I am, but I guess it really gets to me when people younger than me already have everything together. Every girl has done the “backwards life math” that makes guys think that we actually are backwards! I remember I rattled this off to my current boyfriend not long after we met and he looked at me like I had been taking some serious mind altering drugs. He thought I was a crazy person. To think that we’re still dating!! Ok lets do some girl math. For example take the following scenario: you want to be pregnant or have a baby by the time you’re 30

Ok, so no one wants to have a baby the second that they are married – we’re not the Duggers over here! So, say that we allow 2 years of married life before baby – which would put us at being married by 28.

But you want to be engaged for a year, so you have time to plan everything and throw a sufficient amount of Bridezilla hissy fits before your big day, so that means you have to be engaged by the time you’re 27.

But you don’t bump into some guy on the bus or at the grocery store and have him propose over coffee the following day.. Again, we’re not the Duggers here! You need to date for 2-3 years before you get engaged. I mean, he needs to know your style in order to know what kind of diamond to buy you.. Hello!

So that puts us at having to know the guy (or at least know of him) when you’re 24-25 in order for the backwards math list to work. What that tells me is that I’m behind schedule!!!

Christ, maybe I should become a Dugger..! It would take all of the stress out of everything! They don’t  lark about; they just pick their mate and stick with it.. Kinda like penguins or swans or something.. I don’t remember which animal it is that mates for life. Regardless, I’m secretly jealous of their lives too. Yeah, I said it!

Like they’re so pure and un-jaded by TV and society. They don’t seem to worry about waiting in line at H&M to buy the newest pair of Jimmy Choos. Yet they do have the sickest cameras and they all have iPhones… ?! But they don’t spend time fretting over Facebook or picking apart a text message or voicemail from a boy. And they’re pretty much guaranteed life as a housewife – which would be great. I mean come on, what woman wants to juggle a career with babies and housework etc? I certainly don’t.. I guess I’ll have to start buying lotto tickets and buying scratchies..

Web 2.0 Suicide Machine

There is an online web application called “Web 2.0 Suicide Machine” whereby you can completely delete your online presence from social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn.

The application launched just before Christmas on December 19, and has since been responsible for over 1,000 virtual deaths – severing over 80,000 Facebook friendships and removing a staggering 276,000 Twitter tweets!

It sounds a little extreme, but people love it! There are thousands of people waiting to have their online selves deleted.

Users can even add last words, ranging from ”Goodbye cruel world” to “Thank you microblogging. You are, in fact, totally useless”. In general, I think people are seeing this as a good thing. I mean, you could probably spend every waking minute of the day by checking your Facebook, Twitter and Stumbling things on StumbleUpon… And people are stalking other people on Facebook, and checking their boyfriend/girlfriend/spouses’ walls etc. Actually, a few years ago, I was out shopping and some guy came up to me and said “You’re Jane’s friend… I recognize you from Facebook” .. I was like OMG, are you kidding me?! Where do you expect to end up by saying that to someone.. I mean it just makes you sound like a weirdo. even if it was a cute guy, you’d still think twice.. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.. maybe the guy had a photographic memory?! who knows!!

The number of people wanting to do this social networking suicide thing is making the big cats at Facebook nervous. Earlier this month, Facebook blocked the suicide machine from accessing their data, but the number of online social suicides has continued to increase. Facebook has over 350 million users, so they don’t *really* have anything to worry about.. But they do sense a threat!

Maybe the famous people who vow to stop tweeting etc, should give this a go .. ahem, Tila Tequila…..

Would you consider doing this? Do you find social networking is all-consuming? Let me know!

1. iPods: Can you believe that iPods were launched in 2001 – yet it feels like they’ve been around FOREVER! iPods have completely changed how we deal with music and now – other media like movies and pictures. The new iPod is absolutely incredible. You can surf the web, do your emailing, listen to music, watch movies, with this pocket-sized device. I wonder what hot gadget they will come up with next!
2. Facebook: When facebook first hit the internet, it was only limited to Harvard students. Now everyone and their cat has a facebook page. You watch as people start relationships, end relationships, enter into complicated relationships. You don’t even have remember birthdays anymore. And the apps.. I’m just going to say: FarmVille, Cafe World and Mafia Wars. Facebook has even been blocked from some offices because of it’s popularity.
3. Celeb culture: Everyone and their kid is a celebrity now. Jon & Kate, Octo-mom, people that didn’t win American Idol, Pheoby Price… TMZ changed the way “celebrities” are seen – snapping pics when they’re buying their dog food, jogging, leaving a restaurant or club. And people with famous parents are hot for no good reason: the Geldoff girls, Paris Hilton, the Kardashians. And everyone has their own reality show: The Hills, The City, Jersey Shore, Cake Boss… I mean, MTV doesn’t even have music videos any more. It’s all reality shows. And with Twitter, you can see what these “celebrities” are doing all the time!
4. YouTube: YouTube has become a norm of everyday life. People can be YouTube famous just for posting vlogs (video-blogs). Susan Boyle became an over-night celebrity because of YouTube. It’s crazy!
5. Google: Don’t know something, Google it. Can’t think of the name of Dorothy’s dog from The Wizard of Oz? Google it! Is hard to imagine where we would be without Google. In a world where we need everything right away, Google is really a lifesaver sometimes! His name is Toto by the way!
6. Turning everything into a verb and giving everything nicknames: “I’m facebook-ing”, “Blogging”, “Google it”, “Wikipedia it”, “DVR-ing”. It seems there are new words everyday. Tweeting (when you’re posting things on Twitter), PWNED, Sexting, Tweens, Twi-Hards (Twilight Fans). And nicknames for famous couples are everywhere: Spencer Pratt & Heidi Montag from The Hills became Spidi, Brad Pitt & Angelina became Brangelina.. I could keep going but I won’t. And Dancing With The Stars became DWTS, and America’s Next Top Model became ANTM..
7. Starbucks: I don’t drink coffee, but I love a hot chocolate from Starbucks or any other coffee joint. And those people with the crazy Starbucks coffee orders: Grande, chai latte, no fat, no foam, no water, soy, triple shot, extra hot, whipped cream, sprinkles.. I don’t know, I just made that up, but it’s probably a legit coffee! (minus the no water part). But people get crazy with their coffees.. It secretly bothers me when people have these ridiculous orders. If I worked at Starbucks, I would probably only last about 2 minutes. Some “non-fat, extra foam, soy” person would end up with double cream thrown at them!
8. Airports: Do you remember when you didn’t have to take your shoes off in the airport? Or when they gave you real metal cutlery and glass cups on the plane? Or when you could bring knitting needles, sewing needles, a bottle of water onto the plane with you? I think there was a rule where mothers who brought formula or milk for their babies, they would have to taste it before being allowed to take it on board with them. Terrorism changed everything.
9. Shoes: Uggs & Crocs. Uggs became the hottest accessory for cold toes everywhere! Even people in hot climates were wearing the wool lined winter boots with shorts. And Crocs. You either love them or hate them. There were even internet groups dedicated to destroying the shoes.
10. GPS: There’s no excuse for you to get lost anymore. No one uses maps, because everyone has GPS. There was a story of a couple driving 400 miles to the wrong destination because they typed the destination name wrong into their GPS. Oops!

Maybe by 2020, we’ll be flying, teleporting, it’ll be like the Matrix – just upload things into your braincells that you want to learn. No, I’m just kidding. I don’t think I would like that. With the modern fast paced modern day lifestyle, the little things seem to be thrown aside. Things are popular for only a short time, hot things become not hot so fast. Everything needs to be the newest and the best. Just little things like making your own pizza instead of buying a pre-made one, and making your own flower arrangements or centre-piceces instead of buying them can be really rewarding and fun! Even drinks can be brought pre-mixed like martinis and cocktails. I think modern technology is amazing, but we should not forget the simple things like apple picking, pretty flowers, baking a cake or making snowmen!

What do you think the hottest things of the last decade have been?