An exhilarating aspect of language: you never know what words will appear and where they will lead you. While we are capable of predicting or assuming what another will say, there is still every chance in the world that speech will blindside us. Many Americans spend their days online and offline, reading one sentence after another, attempting to be informed and educated. Scientifically, the skill of reading has a good track record of keeping us out of danger. I ask here, what happens when what we read starts to cause the danger? In most written pieces there is a headliner, briefing you what the following document will be about. But no headline stating “California Wildfires: Extreme Heat Turns State into a Furnace” could have possibly led me to anticipate the fact that a social-media “fad” gone-wrong could be responsible for the blazing “El Dorado Wildfire” that has so far devastated 22 square miles, and is only 41% contained as of 9/12/20 at 10pmCST. 21,000 Residents have been evacuated, and we are waiting to hear the damages and losses report. My jaw dropped and the hair on my neck stood up. I thought, “this was so preventable”. The time-stamp of the internet age means we have this great ability to pinpoint the first use-age of a word/phrase/idea. So we know that a Blogger in 2008 is credited with popularizing the festivities of a “Gender Reveal Party”. It was benign and non-malicious intent when Jenna Karvunidis had the idea of revealing the sex of her unborn baby. By cutting open a cake, she and her husband reveal a color to the crowd of family and friends: blue for boy sex, or pink for girl sex. As she put it, “I mean gosh, I just like to throw parties”. The reality of that event was to simply celebrate a new life, a story nearly universally celebrated. 100 years ago the event may have been the talk of the local town for just a few weeks for its creativity. However, there is something about Social Media Platforms that have metaphorically ‘fueled the blaze’ of social and individual comparisons and one-upping. This has far surpassed the 1913 comic “ Keeping up with the Joneses ”. There’s such a thing as healthy competition…and then there’s whatever the heck that social media creates…the illusion of success rather than the substance.