As we enter the next phase of the Coronavirus pandemic (don’t believe the hype…it is not over…it is far from over when, here in Britain, yesterday over 45k were infected and 45 people died. A pandemic is over when both of those figure are 0). One of the strangest change to my life is that I have abandoned the world of social media – I recognise the irony (is this ironic?) but I have almost given up on following all sorts of things. Has this made me a better person? Better is a bit strong but certainly different.

My social media drug of choice was Facebook – I know….so 2010. I no longer log in for days on end and when I do it does look really trivial. Now, of course, Facebook is hardly the latest and greatest on the block but all social media is the same: Post, Comment, Like and Subscribe. The more you do that the more money they make out of you and I just don’t care anymore. Yes it is nice to see friends and people I used to know having a great time but my life carries on just fine without knowing all of these details.

Will things change? Will I be sucked back into the morass that is the Social Media world? I can’t answer that but I suspect it is more likely to be no than yes. The world seems a lot worse for such sites. We seem to be able to find new and more horrible ways to hate one another. Our views are hardened and I don’t think that is price worth paying for the undoubted good that has been delivered by the social media epoch.

Is this ‘Old Fartism’ taking hold of me? Of course it is – afterall I am fast approaching the age of being a fully paid up member of the Old Fart club. One of the advantages of getting old, as Yusuf Islam wrote many years ago, is:

I was once like you are now
Just relax, take it slowly
But take your time, think a lot
Look at me, I am old, but I’m happy

Perhaps I’m too much of hippy which really would be Ironic.