SUSANNA REID: WHY I’M STEPPING BACK FROM SOCIAL MEDIA

WHEN you work in TV you have to develop a thick skin, and I have certainly grown used to criticism.

If I search online, I can find objections every morning to what I’m wearing, how I’ve done my make up (‘is it Halloween?’) and why my hair is a mess.

I’ve been called a snowflake (someone who takes offence at everything), I have been slammed for being a clothes horse and I am regularly instructed to pipe down because I am a woman.

I am told I argue too much with Piers and should let him speak more, and at the same time that I agree too often with him and am a nodding lap dog.

I am informed I am too fat, too thin, too old and too stupid. Spoilt, narcissistic and attention-seeking are common insults, although honestly no one on TV is going to be offended by the accusation that they seek attention. We’re hardly shrinking violets.

The c-word — which often pops up — is never pleasant to read, but I’ve learned to ignore it.

However, there are times when even thick skin gets thinner. I’m finally at breaking point, and I’m taking a step back from all the nastiness.

It started with a new level of personal viciousness in response to my outrage about the murder of George Floyd in the US — I was told to ‘shut up’ and ‘get in your kennel’.

I happened to check my phone when I was making lunch for the kids, and the tirade of sexist insults made my stomach lurch. I thought: ‘Why do I do this to myself?’

Then, on Monday, we talked about Dominic Raab, the British foreign secretary, on GMB. He had said that he thought ‘taking a knee’ — the anti-racist protest — was ‘something out of Game Of Thrones’. It’s an embarrassing mistake, and one he wouldn’t have made it if he spent more time on social media. But what stunned me were the comments Piers spotted on Twitter.

‘Ugh, the racist filth we’re getting in response to that discussion,’ he said. I couldn’t even look. Piers’s answer was to read them out on the show, but the comments were so disgusting I would rather not have them in my head.

I’ve tried to take things in my stride. Take last Thursday, when I posted a tweet about cycling: ‘Boris told me to get on my bike, but it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped’.

‘You are a bike,’ replied one male user. So I sarcastically thanked him in another tweet and moved on. If someone singles me out for abuse, I’m afraid I’m likely to hit back. Sometimes, the best way to handle all the nasty comments is to send a snappy reply to one particularly foul one. Trolls need to know that if they are rude, they may be made an example of.

THE thing is, I am addicted to social media. I can while away hours scrolling through posts and pictures, wallowing in the details of other people’s lives, catching up on news, giggling at funny videos, all the while oblivious to a sunny afternoon or the washing up.

Admittedly, I haven’t used Facebook in years after one Mother’s Day felt like a parenting competition; other mums posted pictures of hand-knitted gifts and homemade breakfasts that seemed to have been curated for show.

But I could easily spend hours on Instagram and Twitter — at least until now. I’m not willing to let the abusers win, but I’ve turned off all notifications and stopped checking my phone. I’ll be blocking the worst trolls, and looking at my feed only when I need information on a news story.

You might think that just sounds sensible, given how horrible Twitter can be. But it shouldn’t have to be this way.

The wealthy owners of top sites must start protecting people who use them in good faith. And make no mistake, unpleasant as it is for me, there is a whole other level of viciousness directed at black people in the media.

My footballing hero Ian Wright described the racist taunting he has received, and it’s terrifying. Much too vile to repeat here.

Why don’t social media firms do more to trace the perpetrators of racist and threatening posts and ban them? They did it to Katie Hopkins and even posted a warning on Donald Trump’s tweets, so why stop there?

Social media has become a dark place, and the sites need to clean up their act if they want people to keep using them.

No one should be scared into silence by the trolls.