WEDNESDAY

break and on we go, sharing, creeping, tweeting all day and night long. The worst thing for me is the time I’ve wasted since I first said I Do to Bebo back in the 2000s. I shudder to think of the years lost to perusing filtered photos and a barrage of verbal diarrhoea. Then there are the more disturbing – and deadly – results of signing our souls over to social media, a land populated by negative thoughts, trolls and cyber bullying, some of which can destroy lives – and even end them. In 2015, researchers in Washington DC revealed that out of 1800 people polled on the effects of Facebook, more women reported being stressed than men – an issue thrust into the spotlight again last week when former Love Island contestant Sophie Gradon took her own life amid reports of depression exacerbated by a campaign of online abuse. It always seemed easier to imagine a vulnerable teenager could be so influenced by slurs and threats as they’ve grown up in the online world but a 32-year-old reality star and beauty queen being so brutally chipped away at and put through so much grief that she couldn’t go on? It’s becoming obvious something has to give, before death does us do part. If not, we’ll all end up in a terrifying alternative Black Mirror universe, not bothering to look up to take in what’s going on. We need to take a deep breath, step outside and reclaim our non-virtual identities. magdalene. dalziel @reachplc .com