SOCIAL media is a fascinating, worrying, remarkable tool of the modern age that is probably far too influential for its own good.

Millions of us enjoy keeping up with the activities of friends and relatives, learning about new trends, products and services generally “keeping in touch” with life as we see it.

Many young people, however are now using it to the exclusion of both mainstream sources of information and personal communication. In other words, they are relying on social media for virtually all their information and interaction with others.

Such exclusivity has obvious drawbacks for their social and mental wellbeing. It also leaves them vulnerable to “fake news” which seeks to mould opinion and behaviour. Take this to a logical conclusion and our young people in particular are in danger of extreme manipulation by those with vested interests.

All of which is why an interesting campaign to have a Scroll Free September is probably worth considering for all of us.

In the style of Dry January for giving up alcohol and Stoptober to quit smoking, this new initiative encourages people to give up all social media for a month.

Polling for the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) suggests that two-thirds of people would be happy to do this but for many the problem is peer pressure and missing out on information.

Just like other kinds of detoxes, a digital detox like this could be very good for individual mental health. It’s very tempting to check out Facebook or Instagram several times a day to see what is happening to the people you know and to post yourself.

But, giving yourself a break from this pressure not only frees up time to do other, possibly more positive activities but also to have an opportunity to assess your own attitude to social media.

It’s a fact that social media is very addictive. You keep up with what is happening in your own world and feel more a part of it if you are aware of everything and can comment or add to this. It’s a way of feeling included.

The danger is that we’re worried we might miss out if we don’t log on and that we offer a fake look at ourselves and our lives with our posts and pictures.

It will be a brave step to take to give up social media for a month but it sounds worthwhile.