AS THE world continues to get smaller, and social networks get bigger, we increasingly find ourselves living in bubbles and echo chambers.

Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, et al, we can talk to people around the world, and with the help of the internet we have access to more information than at any point in human history.

And funny videos of cats, obviously.

The problem comes with extended reliance on this social media - the more we use it, the more say the automated systems of these social media giants have about the people we interact with, the news items, media and shopping suggestions we’re presented with, and we disappear into algorithmic rabbit holes.

The tricky thing about these rabbit holes is that it’s difficult to notice you’re falling into them until it’s too late.

Mention that you’ve missed this week’s Game Of Thrones at your peril, because some clever little code will see those three words and push everything White Walker-related into your feed faster than you can say “hero saved by Deus Ex Machina”.

Retweet one post highlighting the latest buffoonery from an orange, tiny-handed narcissist, and before you know it every other tweet in your timeline is anti-45 propaganda.

Dare to criticise a party, leader, politician or - Heaven forbid - Brexit, then there’s a good chance one of two things will happen - a flurry of likes and retweets which quickly become their own twisting chain of debate that you’re not even involved with, but keep getting notifications for, or your tweet will be read, dismissed, and disappear into the ether.

I’d call it a void, only it’s too chock-full of opinion to be empty.

Years ago, I read an article in a movie magazine about a world-famous actor and knight of the realm who turned down the role of God in an under-appreciated film in the late 1990s.

The reason he gave to the filmmakers was that it would be like - and I’m paraphrasing to keep it clean - breaking wind in the path of a tornado.

Sadly, I can’t find that article any more, but for almost 20 years that phrase has stuck with me as a perfect simile describing a pointless pursuit.

While I do enjoy many elements of Twitter, I feel that description pretty much sums it up nicely. Although I need and use social media for my work, there are often times I wish I’d never even heard of it.

The biggest problem with these timesucks is that the systems surround us with people with similar views, reinforcing our own opinions and making anyone who disagrees with us an oddity or - at worst - enemy.

This, in turn, leads to mockery and insults, rather than open and measured debate, which is a big step backwards for society as a whole and doesn’t help anybody.

As I understand it, the only way to break out of these social media echo chambers is to seek out and like, retweet, comment or interact with those whose views you might not endorse or agree with, just to add them into the algorithmic mix.

A tweet I saw this week suggested “15 years ago, the internet was an escape from the real world. Now the real world is an escape from the internet”, and thankfully, in real life things are a bit simpler.

I recently took to a sunny, crowded beer garden with an old friend, and as we chatted, we laughed and joked about topics we’ve laughed and joked about for almost 20 years.

In itself, that would have been a perfectly pleasant way to spend the afternoon, but when a couple of strangers and their dog joined us at our table, the conversation widened.

We broke out of the bubble we were in, learned a lot about a pair of people we’ll probably never see again, all without the aid of a funny Twitter handle or amusing profile picture.

We heard about their families, shared stories, and were treated to an anecdote which was simultaneously tragic and hilarious, and had the best closing line I’ve ever heard.

In short, we got out of our rabbit hole and had real conversations with real people, and shared a wonderful afternoon away outside the echo chamber.

It was a few hours before we returned to the “what’s he/she gone and done/said now” of Twitter, and I felt all the better for it.

If anyone can recommend a way to do that on social media - that doesn’t involve interacting with views I can’t abide to fool the algorithms - I’d be glad to hear it.

Until then, I suppose cat videos and beer gardens will have to suffice as palate cleansers.