Occasionally, what strikes me as an original and noteworthy idea enters my mind and, lest it die of loneliness, I feel compelled to express it as soon as possible. The past 20 years has given rise to a plethora of convenient forums for such expressions. The problem is that these forums are available to the general public. There is no arbiter to maintain any standards of excellence with regard to what is posted on the Internet and, as a consequence, much of it is inane drivel. Actually, the nature of these forums provokes inane drivel. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter each have more than a billion active participants. Twitter alone posts over half a billion tweets a day. Considering that amount of traffic, it is most unlikely that many, if any, people are going to bother reading my relatively infrequent contributions. Nobody in their right mind would attempt to compile a catalogue of these posts. People simply toss up whatever fleeting thoughts or personal photographs occur to them which quickly fade away into obscurity. To some extent, the purpose of those thoughts & photographs is to promote an enviable, yet, false image of the autobiographer. Sick and tired of envying others, people crave others to envy them. Prior to the barrage of Internet social media sites, a person had to actually achieve some worthy accomplishment in order to rouse a degree of respectable envy. I suppose, to a great extent that is still true although, many people have deceived themselves into thinking otherwise. Recognition now supersedes accomplishment. “Look at me!” is the mantra of our generation. Admittedly, these enunciations smack of an elitist condescension and are, no doubt, galvanized by my own sense of misplaced envy. Oh well, what’s a woebegone ne’er-do-well like myself to do? In fact, that’s a statement which should elicit some favorable replies because when one is fishing for compliments there is no more effective bait than false modesty. Furthermore…         Oops, hold the phone, stop the presses and hang onto your hats…the old grey cells are beginning to percolate. I’m about to start whistling in the wind. Facebook “friends” get ready to click the “like” icon!