When my sister comes to town and goes to the mall, she has to get her clothes at Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister, Aeropostale, and American Eagle.  I see some college kids that drive in cars with tinted windows, premium sound systems, high performance tires, and rims.  Also, these young men have to be beautiful and “6 and 6” (6 foot tall and 6-pack abs).  These young people thrive on Monster, Amp, Red Bull, or RockStar energy drinks for their 24/7 lives.

We see in the news about people having plastic surgery.  Television shows tell us what fashion is “in” and what fashion is “out”.  Magazines tell us who the beautiful people are.  If people in society don’t conform to these social standards, they are criticized and out casted, considered to be Neanderthals, old-fashioned, or they are told they have “social anxiety”.

In order to conform to these social norms, many people take out student loans, max out credit cards, and pile themselves deep into debt.

A couple of months ago, having just turned 35, I was looking at my retirement portfolio, and I discovered that I would be able to retire and be financially secure for the rest of my life when I reached retirement age.  I thought “Why aren’t more people like me?”  That’s when it hit me, “Am I actually normal, and a lot of people in society have social ‘hyper-anxiety’”? 

Have people gotten to the point that they have become so addicted to society that if they don’t jump on the latest societal bandwagon they are cast aside.  In this day where life is “all about the Benjamins”, have we forgot about just being ourselves?  We are so busy trying to put up facades, is there any wonder why the divorce rate is so high, or why there is so much financial turmoil that the even a change in one economic condition, such as the price of gasoline, can cause mass hysteria?

We are constantly being bombarded with advertisements, celebrities, and tabloid television telling us that we should not be happy with who we are, that we always need to strive to be better, and that we need to be in the latest trends in order to be with the “in” crowd.  We have to look or act a certain way in order to be “in”.  But, if we keep covering ourselves and pretend to be something we are not, it will come back to bite us, big time.