But I have closed these accounts. First Twitter, then Facebook and shortly LinkedIn. Initially when I signed up, Twitter and Facebook were places to debate public policy. They were places to send and receive alternative views, to refine one's opinions and sometimes to change one's views based on new perspectives.

But recently the tone of social media has changed. Social media is now a place where there is lots of talking and very little listening. While debates no longer take place, shouting matches do. While new online friends can be made, real ones can be lost. I found myself becoming guilty of this, too.

The last straw for me was the tragic murder of Jo Cox, the British MP, by a man yelling "Britain first". The attack happened in the last few days of Britain's referendum campaign to stay in or leave the EU, where the victim was a pro-European MP.

The week before we had the Orlando murders. Mainstream and social media branded this an Islamic terrorist attack. Then it was a gay hate crime. Then it was a crime by a sick man questioning his own sexuality.

In truth the Orlando murders may well be a combination of all those factors, but many with a drum to beat proclaimed their cause, and their cause only, loudly.

The Orlando victims immediately were mourned, but also became martyrs to a cause of anti-Islam, pro-gay rights, US gun reform or perhaps even pro-mental health. The latter may have the most validity.

When Cox was murdered I noted that many of my conservative "friends" immediately criticised people for "politicising" the crime in the context of the UK referendum.

I pointed out that if the murderer had yelled "Allahu-Akbar" instead of "Britain first", these same people would have immediately politicised the murder and labelled this man and this attack as an Islamic extremist act of terrorism.

Is it any wonder that the loudest voices calling for the non-politicisation of Cox's murder were anti-European campaigners? Was this not a radical, lone wolf Brexit supporter's act of terrorism?

On reflection I agree with my friends. The murderer was deranged and was not actually connected to the Brexit campaign. But in Orlando the murderer had no links to Islamic State or other terrorist groups.

To politicise one and condemn people for politicising the other is hypocrisy.

When something tragic happens now, social media gives us a platform, not to speak, but to yell. Social media has lots of proclaiming and no listening. Not to engage, but to bully, not to consider, but to scream. Things can be said online that threaten friendships in reality.

And I found myself doing this and I didn't like what I was becoming.

But I miss the positives to social media. Facebook allows me to connect with cousins a generation removed that normally would not be known to me. 

Social media is a magnet for the like-minded – positive and negative. IS recruits the vulnerable. Trump supporters proclaim "build the wall" and do not listen to the voices opposing the wall. Democrats scream that Trump is a fool, yet don't stop to consider why he has gained traction.

Few are listening to the other side any more. Is this what society has become?  A contest of loudest voice not strongest idea?

Andrew MacLeod is a visiting professor at Kings College London