If, according to a new survey, life is good for at least 95 per cent of the people, why is there is so much anger and hostility around? Can this be simply put down to the kind of sharp political tribalism that has marked Maltese society for as long?

During the Republic Day investiture ceremony earlier this month, President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca spoke of what she termed as the “culture of verbal violence”. This, she added, “is not only becoming an integral part of our lives but it now seems that we are promoting it as part of our right to freedom of expression, as if this culture is a democratic tool and a burden which everyone in public life has to bear”.

Indeed, put a perfectly reasonable man, or woman, at the keyboard of a computer and the chances are that if s/he opts to engage in social networking on Facebook, or simply respond to a news story, personal attitudes change, often making the person say things s/he would not dream of saying in normal, everyday personal encounters.

Why is the social media bringing out the worst in people?

It is wrong to generalise, or to blot out the tremendous benefits internet and the social media platforms have brought about. It does seem, however, that, far too often, these new technological tools are being wrongly used and abused.

So many people live in anguish as a result of the way their lives have been shattered through unwarranted intrusion into their privacy or wild allegations about them. Outright hostility, rudeness and a language brimming with insults have often become characteristic of the social media.

Perhaps at no other time is this unhealthy social streak more apparent than at Christmas when, ironically, it contrasts sharply with the good wishes so liberally exchanged up to the New Year.

Can the situation be reversed? Can the sting be taken out of politics? When the country is blessed with so much it ought to be proud of, it is somehow proving to be increasingly difficult to promote a more harmonious well-being, a playing field, as it were, where people of different opinions are able to trade their differences civilly, where the colour of the skin does not determine attitudes towards one another and where power does not corrupt.

Impossible? Maybe, but unless an effort is made to draw lines the situation can only get worse.

The density of the population, with people living so close together, has societal advantages but it can also inflate feelings. Economic progress and new times bring about new concerns. Going by the results of the latest Eurobarometer, crime has become a top concern. Immigration has remained a leading worry, too, showing a side of the people that contrasts sharply to the face of the nation most would wish to project.

Those suddenly finding themselves unable to pay the kind of housing rent being asked for and those who are on the poverty line may not be very much impressed by the rising gross domestic product or the deterioration in social attitudes on the internet. Moderation, insofar as the use of the internet is concerned, and wise political and social leadership across the board can help ease concerns to the benefit of all.

This is a Times of Malta print editorial