People need to stop comparing themselves to others, or happiness will always elude them. Someone will always be smarter. Someone will always be more attractive. Someone will always be younger. Someone will always be more popular. But they will never be you. Society makes being "the best" out to be the Holy Grail, but is uniqueness not more important? We bring a unique combination of qualities, skills, and quirks to the table -- ones that make us who we are. By comparing yourself to other people, you're essentially saying there is a standard against which you wish to compare yourself. This, for many people, leads to a sudden urge to want to be more like others, thereby relinquishing key facets of their individuality. Sure, you might admire smart, health-conscious, or stylish people and wish to surround yourself with those of that ilk so as to learn a few things from them. However, that should never translate into abandoning the very goals, principles, attit...

Trends. Fads. People wanting to do what everyone else is doing because it's the "it" thing. Whether it's dressing a certain way, decorating one's home in a popular style, or buying a particular product everyone and his brother seems to own, trends can spread like wildfire quickly. But I see trends as overrated. I equate them with the so-called herd mentality, where people are driven to shadow their peers in their choices -- just so they can fit in. I'm not like most people, which is why I don't subscribe to the herd mentality. I'm big on uniqueness and doing whatever you -- not the rest of society -- think is cool, however socially unacceptable it may be. Most people probably don't place me on their "coolest people I know" list. Why? Because I'm not materialistic, I don't drink, and I'm a huge psychology and history geek. Probably not most people's idea of fun. Regardless, I take pride in bucking trends r...

I don't know if it's just me, but I'm noticing that a lot of my friends have been less active on Facebook these days. Are we getting busier, or is the site's popularity starting to wane? About a year ago, I told some of my closest friends that I predicted the social networking behemoth would eventually go the way of MySpace. It's to be expected of all these sites: They are simply fads. Once something new comes along -- I don't know what that will be but I'm sure Google or another of these huge companies has something in the works -- people gravitate toward it. The same applies to a wealth of consumer products we purchase and use every day -- from clothing to cars. I know a lot of people -- myself among them -- who sometimes feel like their friends go overboard by posting on Facebook the most minute details of their lives on a daily basis, from what they're having for dinner to why they hardly got any sleep last night. We all want to keep in touch, bu...