I don't go in for a lot of social media.

I know I ought to and, in my trade, it's sort of expected, but I'm no fan of twitter or Facebook or blog or Instagram or Snapchat or whatever those things are when they're at home.

I accept the criticisms of being old fashioned, out of touch and curmudgeonly but I still just can't see the attraction.

Firstly, I don't have anything I want to share with strangers for eternity and, secondly, I wouldn't walk down the street shouting out where I shop, who my friends are, where and when I am on holiday, where I live, what my politics are, what I like and what I don't like, what I believe and what I don't believe and how I live, so why would I broadcast such things on the internet?

These things are private and privacy is important and should be cherished, not given away.

Social media may be a marketing tool of limited value, but it isn't much more.

And judging by what has been happening in the Korean peninsula, Charlottesville, Syria, Iraq and all those other places of conflict and hatred, I don't think that modern connectivity has done much good in terms of increasing understanding, tolerance or patience between peoples.

On the contrary, to my mind social media has the opposite effect, drawing the like-minded together and rarely allowing anyone's worldview to be challenged, revised, or even reviewed.

Despite those occasions when social media does something amazing for someone or raises thousands for a charity, I remain unconvinced that social media is, on the whole and on balance, a force for good in our troubled world.

Perhaps it doesn't claim to be.

It seems to me people have got too much to say about other people anyway.

I find it amazing that the President of the United States, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and the rest of them demean the prestige of their respective offices by tweeting.

I cannot understand how they have the time to do so, nor why they feel the need to, beyond that they feel they ought to be constantly twittering away because it seems that everyone else does.

But we live in a world that over-shares, don't we?

This week I spotted headlines in some of our nation's tabloids suggesting that no one wants Camilla to be queen and that most people want to see the crown skip a generation to be thrust upon the heads of Prince William and Duchess Kate.

These headlines were derived from polls commissioned in the light of a documentary about Princess Diana.

A documentary that has been broadcast because Princes William and Harry decided, a few weeks previously, to rake it all up again and go on television to talk about their feelings and private thoughts about their mother.

Yet both princes regularly demand a right to privacy.

It's confusing, isn't it?

Are they private or public figures?

What is private and what isn't?

I suspect even for them the lines are somewhat blurred and they are private when it suits them and public when it suits them.

I rather regretted that the Princes felt the need to share these feelings and memories at all, but again I suspect I am expressing a counter-cultural and somewhat unfashionable opinion here.

The polls are, of course, nonsense.

Firstly there is no reason why Camilla shouldn't be crowned queen.

She clearly has the right attributes and it happens that she's married to the Prince of Wales, who is more likely to be King than anyone else.

And, in this country, a king's wife is his queen.

Even if she's called something else, she'll still legally be queen just as she's legally Princess of Wales now, although it is not a title she has ever used for obvious reasons.

And there is no way, except for legislation, that the crown can simply skip a generation as some have suggested.

That's just not how things work.

To skip a generation would be to deny the essence of an hereditary monarchy and effectively end it.

Whether it be Donald Trump or the Duke of Cambridge, oversharing can be a dangerous business.

Do you agree with James? Do write and let him know at james.marston@archant.co.uk

He'll be delighted to hear from you as he positively relishes the attention.