The trouble with social media is the trouble with the 2-way nature the Internet has developed into.

On the plus, it gives everyone a mouthpiece. It’s an amazing, equalising, liberating and democratising mechanism. We can all self-publish and let our thoughts be heard around the world.

On the minus side, it gives everyone a mouthpiece. Trolls, inadequates and other losers can spew forth their bile and vitriol from the relative safety of their device.

You see, traditionally, the rich, powerful and famous published, broadcasted and pontificated and we – the great unwashed on the receiving end of this 1-way traffic – absorbed and consumed it. They were the creme de la creme and there was in the main a relatively high standard and a degree of self-censorship involved. They understood the medium, and they controlled it.

Once you make the broadcast mechanism 2-way and universal, a lot of those conditions and controls go away. Suddenly the 99% of us get a chance, and we’ve far less to lose, and potentially a lot more to gain.

It’s not necessarily progress, or regress. It’s constant and accelerating change.