Do it for the right reasons,not for self-gratification

There are some kind people amongst us who look out for the less fortunate. I’m thinking of the volunteers in homeless shelters and the people who took time out of their own Christmas Day to give away free food from their stores and burger vans.

But then I think there are those who really do it for little more than their own self-gratification. They buy a sandwich and a can of Coke for a homeless man, then run back to their social media account to tell the world what a great deed they’ve done.

It usually starts with ‘I’m not blowing my own trumpet, but...’

I expect that soon we’ll see an accompanying selfie, just for authenticity and extra likes.

If you want to do these things, be graceful about it and do it for the right reasons.We don’t want to know about how you bought the man a KFC and stayed for a chat and then patted his dog.

Yes, if you do a good deed, you’ll feel good about yourself. That would be normal.

But why do you need complete strangers on the internet to tell you what a star you’ve been?

The advent of social media is making society more and more narcissistic.

‘Oh look at me, I’ve got 164 likes, I must be great.’

What happened to someone doing something good and just telling their nearest and dearest?

In the old days, before people lived their lives through the internet, you wouldn’t have got someone with a loud hailer standing on the steps of the Guildhall shouting to every passer-by what a wonderful thing they just did.

If you did that, you’d have probably got lumped in with the people wearing ‘The end is nigh’ sandwich boards.

People are even getting their kids in on the act, as in ‘my little Johnny went into Greggs and used his last pound to buy a sausage roll for a homeless lady.’

Oh come on, enough now!