I ordered the book "Status Anxiety" by Alain de Botton. Unfortunately, it has not yet arrived and I did not get a chance to start reading it. However, Status Anxiety discusses a topic that everyone is confronted with, or as De Botton puts it: "Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first, the story of our quest for sexual love, is well known and well-charted. The second, the story of our quest for love from the world, is a more secret and shameful tale. And yet this second love story is no lessintense than the first."

But what exactly is social status? How does it show? We all know (and recognise) some more classical signs of social status. Cars. Houses. Cellphones. And also my new iPod Nano. Why do I have the urge to take my iPod out of my pocket when there is no functional need to do so. Did that girl to the right notice it? Did she notice me holding it? Is she impressed by it? From a rational point of view I know that this is a completely useless exercise, at least that is what I would like to conclude. But is it really?

Does our social status influence our emotional state, and the other way around, do emotions affect our social status? Is happiness (or perceived happiness) a sign of social status? How often do you answer the question "How are you?" in all honesty? Have you ever answered "Well, I feel like total crap, my wife left me last week and I found out that she is cheating withmy best friend." Obviously this is a rather extreme example, and more factors play a role of importance in sharing such information. However, sadness, shame, and failure or not part of the emotions we usually share, and my assumption is that emotions are in many ways part of social status, either directly or indirectly.