The first, in The New York Times, suggests that broadcasting our most mundane details is preventing us from being in the moment. We think, "I should totally tweet what I'm doing right now."

Here's the start of it.

On a recent lazy Saturday morning, my daughter and I lolled on a blanket in our front yard, snacking on apricots, listening to a download of E. B. White reading “The Trumpet of the Swan.” Her legs sprawled across mine; the grass tickled our ankles. It was the quintessential summer moment, and a year ago, I would have been fully present for it. But instead, a part of my consciousness had split off and was observing the scene from the outside: this was, I realized excitedly, the perfect opportunity for a tweet.

I feel like the outside observer syndrome is something I've fought for a long time, long before Twitter, but instead of Twitter I think, "This would be a great scene in a novel." So that separation I'm pretty familiar with.

The second article had more insight I thought, but in some ways, it builds off the first.

"Facebook is the new TV" it says. On TV we watch the cast of Friends have crazy adventures and we think, "Why isn't my life like that?" In short, TV has a tendency to make us feel bad that our lives are not glamorous and witty 24/7.

The article says, that Facebook does the same thing, but worse, because it's our friends who are glamorous and witty and leading wonderful lives. From the article:

"I used to be on Facebook a lot,” she said, “but found that it left me feeling bad about my life.” It’s a sentiment that I’ve heard from lots of people over the last few months: you see others leading amazing lives, and wonder why your life seems so not-so-amazing in comparison.

My friend was quick to point out that she knows rationally that this makes no sense. Of course those people have problems too. Of course they post pictures of vacations (but only the flattering ones) and not of boring days at work.

And this makes sense, because of the first article–everyone is self-editing their image to look cool.