Once upon a time people used to write obscenities on walls. A marker pen in a toilet cubicle, a spray can of paint round the back of the bike sheds, a blunt knife and a sycamore tree. These were the tools of the cowardly bullies or giggling cohorts of schoolgirls bunking class.

Schools desks might still be littered with compass etched expletives about Carly Butterfield or Daniel Drinkwater, but nowadays they’re more likely to be transcribed onto a new wall, a digital one. Nowadays it’s more likely that school yard slander will manifest itself as status updates on Facebook than engravings eked out whilst teacher is scribbling unintelligible physics equations on the blackboard.

The Wall, these days found on Facebook rather than an alleyway

Not forgetting the stupidity of nipping to the loo leaving your phone logged into Twitter in the presence of mischievous mates, or the high profile cases of serious victimisation through online channels, I’ve been wondering if social media has given new life to the darker side of our connected society. Is it too easy to shout and scream abuse at other individuals via a social network, a blog comment or a forum thread?

It would seem it’s not just school kids who don’t know any better.

Take PHD Worldwide, who probably deserved a little stick for their predictions of the future of digital, but you might agree that some commentators went a little bit OTT with their response.

Take Darron Gibson, Manchester United and Irish international footballer, who this week quit Twitter just hours after he signed up. Whatever your opinion of his abilities (and I rest assured that he would tear me apart on a five a side pitch) does a Premier League footballer really deserve to be served up such a smorgasbord of rants, criticisms and swear words from people who really should know much better?

One of the less vitriolic examples of Twitter abuse that Gibson received

Perhaps I’m idealistic, or plain soft, but is it really fair that anyone should be victim to this sort of behaviour? It was hardly constructive criticism or wink-and-smile humour. Would you scream these things at Gibson if you saw him in the street?

Perhaps in this example those in the limelight should know better, perhaps they should avoid putting themselves in that situation, but that’s somewhat missing the point.

We all know that shouts of frustration leave the mouths on the football terraces. We all know that Kerry Katona isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and that most blokes pretend to hate Ant & Dec for no reason other than they’re a smidgeon jealous. Let’s face it, swearing and moaning about others is part of everyday life . If it wasn’t Frankie Boyle would be out of a career…

And this opens up a whole other can of worms. What is acceptable to say in public? What should you leave for the save confines of the pub or living room?

It seems that social media has become such a personal thing that people are as comfortable talking to the world as they are talking in their own home and that with this comfort people have no trouble in making public their spontaneous outbursts of vitriol. Do some people have no shame? Is it ok to do this? Are certain people fair game? Am I kidding myself that some of these people don’t deserve it?

Social media has enhanced my life, I’ve shared and learned and met friends for life, and I’ve seen it used for many a good deed. But as with everything, it can be used for other means. There’s a dirty, nasty side to the ability to post whatever you’re thinking and have it re-tweeted around the world.

I doubt we can ever expect to have our pie and only lick the cream from the top, but is there a real danger that the power of social media is increasingly acting as a bike shed wall for our school yard hate mail?

If you blinked and missed Darron Gibson’s brief stint on Twitter then some of the tweets are recorded here. Whether you think it’s all blown out of proportion or genuinely unacceptable behaviour, let me know what you think.