In fact, what really matters the very most in this Life is who you can actually touch. No, not necessarily "touch" in the sense of being able to physically reach out and embrace someone or other, but rather, whose Life you may be able to affect in a positive and meaningful way. Or perhaps even someone who may be able to help you yourself in that regard in return. You know, when the chips are down. When you, or they, literally have no one else to turn to.
Because you see, having a big old "friend list," full of all those... those names... the names of people that one could not even possibly even speak to on a regular basis (or they to you) doesn't make anyone rich, powerful, or even necessarily all that influential. Heck! Some of your "friends" may even be laughing at you. And not the good kind of laughing, which is with you, and not at you.
And that right there is often just how "social" media interactions, and most classic human acquaintanceships, really just plain work anyway, silly! You see, even and especially nowadays, with the big, fancy Internet, people can easily "follow," "hide" from, or even outright ignore your posts and shared content at any time of their choosing. They can even block you altogether, and that, as they say, is that. Out of sight, out of mind.
Or... they might also just humor you, by "liking" every other thing you post. Psst! All of us fancy "connected" folks, we're all sitting behind "personal" computers, you know. So nobody is really beholden to anybody else. And nobody really has to give a crap about absolutely anything anyone says or does. Well... unless you're in someone's immediate family, or you happen to be a co-worker or something of that nature.
So you see, these days, people don't even have to "unfriend" you to actually kinda... well, hate your stinking guts. Or even just dislike you. In most cases, just like a good old fashioned "plug nickel," they'll be more than happy to keep you around, just in case they happen, at some point down the line, to find an old fashioned slot machine that will readily accept you in trade.
So you see, these days, people don't even have to "unfriend" you to actually kinda... well, hate your stinking guts. Or even just dislike you. In most cases, just like a good old fashioned "plug nickel," they'll be more than happy to keep you around, just in case they happen, at some point down the line, to find an old fashioned slot machine that will readily accept you in trade.
Believe me, you'll be just fine down in someone's trusty back pocket, with all the more or less useless lint and spare petty change that can be discarded on a mere whim at any time of their random choosing. And that's just where many of us tend to sit. Until, or even if that is, someone in your social media circle should ever have need of you. And yes, it really is a sad way to look at social media "friendship," but that's just how most human relationships often really tend to be, whether you're a relative, a lifelong friend, etc., etc., etc., notwithstanding.
And then, sadly, it's even worse for those folks who don't even have that much going for them. They don't even have blood relatives who even like them enough to have anything at all do with them whatsoever in the first place. So when everybody else is getting together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or being invited to a wedding... well, there's so much of a nasty feud brewing in the very bloodlines of the so-called "family," that some people just don't ever get invited to share that "fellowship" anyway. And worse yet, there are even some you're afraid to invite yourself!
And that is how some people end up on the street. Or in the gutter. On the side of the road. All the people all the rest of us lucky ones tend to have to try to ignore on our way to work. Or, even when we're out Christmas shopping, looking for pretty papers and pretty ribbons of blue. You know, for all those important people on that big, fancy, all consuming "social" list of names. And names. And names. And quite often, not very much else of any true and lasting substance.
But I guess that's just people for ya.
