I choose not to post comments on my Facebook page anymore.  It is a reflection of our time that I even need to explain this.  About the same as if I had said, 30 years ago, that I don’t watch TV.  Or, 50 years ago, that I like to play with dolls.  Facebook is the new conformity. And it is sad how unreal the Facebook world is, the norms, the limitations, the exchange of so few words typed with such scant forethought saying all too little of significance.  But hey, I saw a sunset today.  I took a picture of it.  The birds were chirping.  A postcard of my life.

Wall Street firms created index funds for those who want to invest in the stock market but don’t have the talent (who does?) to select individual stocks.  Facebook is the index fund of personal relationships — on Facebook, you can have 500 “friends” without worrying much about any of them, since each one represents such a small part of your portfolio.  You get a mediocre “return” on your token investment, the same return that everyone else expects.  Just as in the investment world, the less you risk, the lower the return.

As Peggy Lee sang, is that all there is?  Afraid so, when it comes to Facebook.

It is hard for me to even log on to Facebook without feeling like one of the Stepford Wives, checking my personality at the door the moment I click the login button.  At least here on this blog, I can strive for expression slightly less-fettered.  Free-range Collins, as it were.