There have been a lot of news reports over the past week about the buyout of Twitter by the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.

The Tesla co-founder paid $44bn for the social media platform and his first few days at the helm of it have not gone without criticism.

One of the other main features of Mr Musk’s new strategy appears to be the concept of charging a monthly fee for any user who has a blue tick by their name.

I remember before the Musk era and for the past few years there has been a lot of kudos for having blue tick status by your Twitter handle and some people get very focussed on getting awarded one.

I have yet to achieve one but I am not particularly fussed about it, although I realise they are useful in recognising valid accounts and commentators.

After the news that there may be a charge for this privilege and the overall leadership change of Twitter, a lot of people are saying they want to leave it and possibly move to Mastodon – another platform I had not heard of until last week.

Looking back over my lifetime since my parents first got the internet and I signed up for my first Hotmail email account as a teenager it is incredible how the technology landscape has changed.

It is great how people can communicate with many people at a tap of a button and access lots of information but I worry about how social media can make people less likely

to foster strong real-life friendships and take part in meaningful discussion.

It can also create a toxic environment around some issues.

Social media will never leave us but It is important to step back from it and appreciate what is happening around us in front of our eyes.