Expectation of a Double Life

This weekend I was catching up with one of my best friend's whom I may add I believe is the last person on earth to not join the facebook/myspace/twitter or any other social media craze. We spent our conversation laughing about the expectation of a double life that everyone is expected to live these days. First, you have your normal life that people have always lived for hundreds of years. Your normal day to day interactions, phone calls, mailing pictures to family, and now society has the expectation of maintaining both your normal life and your online life. Now I love being in touch with so many people that I would have more than likely lost contact with over the years. The status updates of facebook have kept people that could have disapeared from my day to day life on the front burner as I may have not talked to them in months or even years, but I can clearly account for the name of their first born child, what they ate for breakfast, and where they will be going for the next week on vacation. Online living has changed the way we live on nearly every aspect. I doubt we will ever return to a simpler day where my only status update choices were Emily is "happy" "sad" "excited" and if I wanted to get really wild I could mix and match a smiley face with my chosen emotion. With your online life there is an expectation of keeping your friends updated on your happenings and if you don't you actually feel a sense of guilt for neglecting your 100+ facebook friends.

It is no wonder these days that social media has caused so much stress for some people. Those who previously struggled with living one life must now maintain a second life online. As a society we struggled with the rejection of friendships and the stress of family dynamics and now people are obessing over ignored friend request. the loss of a Farmville neighbor, or the worry of when to change their relationship status.

For many of us we have chosen to live the "double" life. I spend part of my free time each week entertaining you with my words ;) or maybe I am just not ready to take on a Farm, schoolhouse in Frontierville, or Mafia family in Mafia wars. Blogging has been my double life. :) Although sometimes the expectations of a double life can be a bit much, I am thankful for the many amazing friends who like me in both my online and real life :)