From Capital-list to Social-list in two decades

In the 1980s, there was pressure to be rich, especially if you were young and going places. I'm pretty sure that this was the era when The Sunday Times Rich List was born. People boasted about salaries and, in one case, a salary was even named after a person.

These days, there's pressure to be social. Not in terms of a 1980s socialite throwing glitzy parties at Stringfellow's but by being a mover and shaker as far as social media is concerned. And The Sunday Times has now launched a Social List through the agency VCCP.

I refrained from joining up and calculating my "social networking activity and prowess" on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare, because I already know the answer to that.

While it's OK, in my view, for a bit of entertainment, if you're into that sort of thing, I really don't like the language associated with the press releases about the site - "competition, climbing the ratings, jostling for position" - it all sounds as vulgar as Harry Enfield's Loadsamoney character did in the 80s.

So, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go and scuttle off to my virtual hermit hole where I can continue to talk to myself.