Social Networking.

Before the advent of social networking, there were message boards.

Then My Space stormed high schools coast to coast.
Then there was Facebook, and everyone from 8 to 80 joined in.
Now the cyber-world is all-a-twitter about Twitter.

I don't use any of these services, as I receive sufficient self-flagellation from writing my blog, which currently has an audience of two people.

You see, to effectively use a social networking site, one has to have "friends" or at least people interested in your daily doings. I don't.

Now, I suppose I could be receiving "tweets" from D-list celebrities and bored members of Congress on their latest doings, but I doubt they have anything important to say to me. Especially in 140 characters or less.

I do, however, feel a certain empathy for the folks in that old Beatles song; you know the one -- hum along if you choose...

Eleanor Rigby (Lennon/McCartney)
Aah, look at all the lonely people
Aah, look at all the lonely people

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been
Lives in a dream
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door
Who is it for?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear
No one comes near.
Look at him working.
Darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there
What does he care?

All the lonely people
Where do they all come from?
All the lonely people
Where do they all belong?

If this sounds like a plea for more attention, forget it. I've been a loner for most all of my life. So were my parents. Being an only child, I learned a long time ago how to keep myself entertained. I also have a wife who dotes on my every word... don't you, honey?

Maybe I should invent a social network for the Eleanor Rigbys of the world who never learned how to cope.

Oh. Never mind. Someone did.

I think it's called Match.com.