Tommy Collison: Why humble email has turned out to be the most sociable of social media

Everyone has it, it’s easy to use, it has brilliant features and – crucially – it is bereft of toxicity

Social media is a huge part of modern life – unfortunately, we all know that it’s not actually good for us by now, with the evidence of negative effects piling up. Photo: Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Blend Images LLC

Tommy Collison

Since getting married, my wife and I have been blessed with a wide circle of friends that we see often. My wife grew up among an extended family of aunts and uncles and cousins for whom cooking and being cooked for was an act of love, while one of my strongest memories of childhood is of my parents hosting friends for dinner.

Friday nights would invariably see them host neighbours, work colleagues, or old college classmates. As kids, my brothers and I wouldn’t be given dinner early and then so-long-fairwell’d up the stairs before the adults sat down, we could stay, eat and learn from them.