The software is an important addition to Google's catalog, but offering IM and chat is just keeping up with the Joneses.

FORBES: Google's Big Bet: Beyond Instant Messaging

When I first heard about FOMO, I thought it was another way of saying keeping up with the Joneses, and the two are pretty similar.

FORBES: The Fear of Missing Out

Keeping up with the Joneses is conspicuous consumption that occurs when people compete with their peers by buying what they buy and doing what they do.

FORBES: The Fear of Missing Out

But keeping up with the Joneses is an even more gripping problem in the uber-competitive world of pro sports than it is at the country club.

FORBES: Mo' Money, Mo' Problems: ESPN Goes "Broke"

It all leads to one crucial question: are any of these companies really onto something, or are they just keeping up with the Joneses in a feverish quest after an imaginary next big thing?

FORBES: WSJ: Microsoft is Joining the Race to the Smartwatch

Economist and social critic Thorstein Veblen took a crack at it in The Theory of the Leisure Class, the 1899 classic that wryly posited the theory of "conspicuous consumption, " his phrase for keeping up with the Joneses.

FORBES: In Search of the Buy Button

Given that Foxconn has always paid better than competing Chinese factories, it looks rather like just keeping up with the Joneses rather than responding to the outrage and fury of a few hipsters thousands of miles away.

FORBES: Putting Foxconn's Wage Rises in Context

We argued, back when we were all Third Way liberals, that not having money was a problem because it kept you from keeping up with the Joneses, and eroded the sense of community, of shared culture, on which democracy depends.

FORBES: Some Soul-Searching on Inequality

It may seem like a harmless "keeping-up-with-the-Joneses" style obsession.

FORBES: Magazine Article