Is everyone an author?

    Is everyone an author?  To answer I find myself seeking to define author.  I could consider an author to be someone who shares their thoughts as words in a medium accessible to the general public.  Books, blogs, songs and such are said to have authors.  But what about a Facebook post, it's available to many people too.   But is that really enough?  Does every random online comment on an open medium render their progenitor an author?  I think not.  I believe that in order to tread the tenuous line of quality between "author" and literate these days one must write with intent.  Not merely a casual, almost negligible, effort to communicate, but in a manner that invites the reader to consider, appreciate even, the words themselves.  Words that furthermore must be written with a serious and considered intent to communicate in such a way as to make a lasting impression and linger in a reader's mind, not all readers necessarily, but at least one.  By these definitions online comments, such as Facebook posts may or may not be the prodigy of authors depending on their purpose.  Simple communication? No.  A thoughtful attempt to communicate with intentionally chosen words? Yes.  A letter to your parents? Insufficient.  A collection of letters sent home during your trip around the world, that got published? Congratulations, you're an author!  So no, I believe that not everyone is an author, you must at the very least be literate and have access to a publishing medium before you can be an author, and even then you must write with thought for the language as well as the communicated idea.