Typing articles with one hand while nursing a very restless baby on my lap with the other, I knew someone would be online whenever I needed a chat or an opinion on one of my ideas.

I've been an avid user of various social media platforms for more than a decade, even studying some of those platforms more deeply as part of my PhD.

This was during the early days of Facebook and Twitter, when fewer people made for great online conversations and something big happening, like the plane plunging into the Hudson River, made its way through the white noise to our collective attention almost instantly.

My attitude towards social media has changed over the years.

Once I saw this online space as the place to connect with like-minded people, and that still happens, but now it is also a place where horrible thoughts and ideas can be seeded and spread at a frightening pace.

Working for an organisation that uses social media to share and promote content, as well as doing the same for sunrise photos, weekend baking pursuits and the odd piece of creative writing, I see countless comments and messages from people in my community and around the world.

Not all of these posts, messages and comments are positive, or good, or even true.

There will always be a percentage of people who use whatever means possible to spread ill-informed ideas, but this seems to be happening more frequently now than ever before.

And the rules of engagement have changed.

Is it because we are not saying those words face to face, so we don't see the damage they can cause?

Or has our greater ability to connect online made us unable to maintain relationships as we once did?

I see the impact of this daily when my colleagues are repeatedly trolled for articles they have written, or on my friends who are attacked for something they have shared with their network.

I can also see it affecting my children and their friends, as they agonise over what somebody says about them in such a public forum.

As much as I love the world social media has opened up to me, I am also concerned about what it has done to the world I grew up in, and what this means for my children.