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Hello, I hope everyone has had a good week. Welcome back to the next show. This is going

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to be totally different actually this one. I'm going to talk about mainly a little experience

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and I'm not going to say what social media it was on. There was an issue on social media

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Saturday evening where I was doing a live video and I think it's only right we talk

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about what happened during that live video. So before we get heavily into that, just very

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quickly I just want to let you all know that actually do you know what I feel like I'm

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getting a little bit closer to being me again. There's been a bit of a wake up call for me

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and yeah I'm pushing forward you know what I'm pushing forward. We're going to get there.

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But onto the main topic of today's show. Now I really want to talk about social media and

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how some people use social media. Because as I say Saturday evening I jumped online

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this weekend I've been involved with the MS Trust. They've been doing a stream for MS

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weekend trying to raise money for the MS Trust which will go into things like MS Research

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and other bits and pieces helping people all that sort of stuff. So that's been a real

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positive I'm going to be honest that's been an incredible positive. So just jumping on

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and don't get me wrong I mean I've not gone absolutely to town we're raising loads and

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loads of money but something's better than nothing and I'm quite proud of that. I've

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been streaming computer games on certain types of streaming sites. I've been jumping onto

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live videos to talk about things all that sort of stuff. Now that one Saturday evening

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I jumped online it was quite a long live I was on there for between an hour and a half

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and two hours roughly. Now the first sort of 20 minutes 25 minutes were absolutely brilliant.

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Really were fantastic. A lot of people from the MS community jumping in having a conversation

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asking questions and just having a conversation about things seeing how everyone's doing and

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you know just chilling out together it was really really nice. There was other people

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in there as well and again asking questions or just having conversations and it was lovely

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it really was. And then came what I can only describe as a tsunami of trolls. Do you know

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what it was something I've never ever seen before and I know I'm still really new to

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all of this stuff. You know I've only really been doing everything since maybe October

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last year so still lots for me to learn. But oh my word the level of trolling was ridiculous

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and I can't understand why people think that is even remotely acceptable. Except let's

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see it for what it is. People go onto social media and there's a percentage of people and

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I'm not going to start chucking out exactly what I think and whatever else but there's

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a decent amount of people that go onto social media purely to have an argument. Purely to

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have a go at other people and purely to try and upset people. And again I'm going to say

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it straight these people are absolute clowns. They are genuine genuine clowns and I'm not

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even talking the funny type. It was pathetic honestly I can't explain it. There was people

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coming on there calling me daddy calling me uncle abusing me for the fact that I've got

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a shaved head. I mean it really is it's just incredible. One idiot even thought it was

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funny to make a comment about my wife. It's not the kind of comment somebody would make

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face to face. It's the sort of thing they're only doing it because they're sat behind a

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keyboard at home where nobody knows their face nobody knows their voice even. They've

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got no bravery about them they've got nothing. And it makes no sense. The internet if it

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was used properly would be an incredible thing. It really would. Now to me I like to think

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I use the internet as properly as I possibly can. Don't get me wrong I am not perfect.

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Never going to be. But I wouldn't go onto somebody's live video where they're trying

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to have a conversation with friends and whatever else. I just wouldn't go on there and start

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abusing them. I wouldn't even think about it. It's not the kind of thing that would

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go through my head to do. Why do it? Where does it come from? Where does that fun come

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from to abuse someone that you haven't got enough about you to do face to face. Again

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it can only come from the fact they know full well there's nothing can be done about it.

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So these social media companies they've got to start getting involved in this. It shouldn't

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necessarily be down to people reporting what's going on. It shouldn't necessarily be down

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to somebody blocking everyone because trust me I got to a point last night my block button

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was my best mate it really was. We were just the best of friends. But it shouldn't have

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to be that way. It genuinely shouldn't and don't get me wrong again I'm no computer programmer.

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There's got to be a way that these social media companies can address the issue. Because

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there's going to be people out there that would suffer that kind of abuse and it's going

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to cause them massive problems. It's going to make them doubt themselves. It's going

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to make them concerned about doing those sort of videos again. Now again I am no programmer

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but there has to be a way these social media companies have got to start stepping up and

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they've got to start saying enough is enough. We want good people using these apps. We don't

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need people using these apps that are going to abuse them. That's fact. It doesn't need

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to happen. And don't get me wrong it probably is something that's so far down the line in

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the future technologically whatever. But it's a very very good job that I do have quite

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a good head when it comes to being abused and whatever else. 20 years in the line of

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work I've had you get used to it. There's not many things I haven't been called in my

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life. Most of them are probably pretty true. But when you're trying to do something good,

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when you're trying to do something nice, when you're trying to do something respectful,

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why suffer in that manner? Why would you have to doubt whether it's a good idea to continue

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doing what you're doing? Because for me I'm getting my story out there. Okay to some my

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story might not be that interesting. Actually to me it's incredibly interesting. Fact. Because

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my story to me hopefully gets out there. Somebody listens to it and goes actually I can relate

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to that. Because that person relating to what I'm saying maybe that's going to take a little

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bit of stress off them. Maybe it's not. But I hope it does. I shouldn't have to then think

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to myself is this the right thing to do? Because some bunch of complete muppets think what

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shall I do on Saturday night? If it was me and I was able I'm either going to take my

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wife out on a Saturday night if I've not got a wife. I'm going to go out with my mates.

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I'm going to have a good time. I'm going to have a laugh. I'm going to do what you're

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supposed to do. You know even if there's nothing else to do. Stick a bit of rubbish telly on.

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There's plenty of it. Believe me the telly is absolutely poop these days. There's never

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a lot on. There really isn't much on. I'm going to do whatever. I'm going to have an

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early night should I need to. What I'm not going to do is jump onto social media and

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start abusing people randomly. Because I like to think of myself as a good person. I don't

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know what these people think they actually are. And that's a cold hard fact. Because

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what they're doing is bullying. And there's one thing in my life I absolutely detest it's

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bullying. Bullying's not necessary. It really isn't necessary. There's better things you

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can do with yourself. If you don't like someone don't speak to them. It's not hard. It's not

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rocket science. You just don't have a conversation with them. You keep yourself to yourself and

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carry on with your life away from others. It really is that simple. There's too many

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things in the world that are going wrong that are not good. You don't need to try and make

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it worse for people. Give me a second. I'm just going to have a drink. This chair's got

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a right creak on. Let me stick my drink close to me. But yeah so that's where it was on

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Saturday night. And I'm going to now go into the fact that during that live there was a

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lot of people in there that were good. I mean there was over 2000 people that jumped onto

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that live at different times. And I'm going to be straight. Probably 50-50 split. There

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was probably a thousand really good people. And 1000 complete and total a-holes. That's

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all I can say on that. I'm not going to say a full word. But they were complete and total

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a-holes. And to those that were good, they defended me absolutely incredibly. They really

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did and it made me so grateful and so, I'm going to say the word proud. It genuinely

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did. It made me really proud that these people we've never physically met. We've had conversations

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and they've always been brilliant conversations. They've always been really great. They are

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genuinely good people. That's there for all to see. They did everything they could to

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try and defend me through it all. Now I did the best I possibly could in terms of trying

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to block it out, trying not to respond and whatever else. But you know what? There's

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only so much you can take until there comes a point you've got to say something. And I'm

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going to be honest, I did at times. Like I say, there was one in particular that made

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a comment about Lisa, my wife. And actually I'm very glad he was on the computer because

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I may not have held my temper on that one. Whatever you say about me, you say about me.

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That's fine. Not a problem. You don't talk about my family. You do not talk about my

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family. It's not necessary. It's not needed. And all that's going to happen is you're going

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to get to a point where I am going to tell you where to go. And again, I'm not doing

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this podcast to try and to try and make me sound like I'm being a snowflake about it

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all. Cause you know what? I'm really not. I'm genuinely not being a snowflake about

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it in the slightest because actually doing what I'm doing on the social media, on this

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podcast, now doing the computer game stream and all that sort of stuff, I'm putting myself

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out there. So I've got to get used to this side of stuff. And do you know what? I actually

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found it as a one-off kind of helpful. I really did because it taught me a little bit of how

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the other side of things actually works. And as much as it was frustrating, as much as

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it was something that really did, did great on me, it was also something that taught me

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quite a valuable lesson. So now I've got something to look at, look at how I can change it, how

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I can improve it and how I can try and stop it happening again. Because I want these live

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videos and I'm going to start doing an awful lot of them. I really am. This podcast, I'm

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actually starting to consider maybe doing this live where there is a service for doing

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that and I'm considering it because that way I can have a backwards and forwards with people

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because do you know what? It's actually really fun to do. It's going to take a while for

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that to happen because it's a learning curve. I've got to keep learning and that's something

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I want to learn because if I can improve, that's nothing but positive. And at the moment,

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I'm sat here right now on Sunday and I've had the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

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doing this streaming and whatever else. And all I can see is these things I can improve

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at this, these things I can do to make, to make everything a little bit, a little bit

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better for people watching, listening, all of that sort of stuff. So I'm going to do

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that because I'm going to be totally honest. I love doing this stuff. I really genuinely

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love doing this stuff and I'm going to learn it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to improve.

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I'm going to make it better. And some silly little troll sat in his basement, tapping

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away on his keyboard because he's got nothing else to do with himself. Ain't going to stop

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me doing that. That's cold, hard fact. It really is cold, hard fact. I've got this new

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level of fight back in me that I'm there again. I'm back to being me. I'm going to mention

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the fact that obviously I had on Monday contacted my doctors regarding mental health issues

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because I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'd ever actually come to terms with my diagnosis

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of MS. I thought I had, but I don't actually think I'd completely processed it. So I am

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seeking some help for that because again, if you've got issues going on like that, talking

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about it is the right thing to do. It really is. And again, just putting the thought out

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there. And I mean, it's tomorrow, Monday, I've got my first phone call conversation

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and I'm really looking forward to it because if there's a way I can fight back, I'm going

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to fight back. I really am. I'm not prepared to keep being in the doldrums with it all

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because it's just not me. It's not me. These last, it's going to be as much as probably

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a year, maybe more that I've sort of been plodding away with nobody knowing just how

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I'm feeling. That ain't there anymore. That really ain't there anymore. I'm back to being

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me. I'm back to fighting through this all and I'm back to kind of taking control a little

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bit. That old saying, I've got MS, MS hasn't got me. Yeah, I'm right there again. I'm right

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there. It's had its time. It's time for me to start being me again. I want to start seeing

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my smile. I want to start seeing me making my family smile and that's what's going to

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happen. It really is. And again, part and parcel of doing that is what I'm doing now.

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Recording this podcast, doing the live videos and everything else. It's not all going to

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be negative. And I know I'll be honest, these podcasts over the last few weeks probably

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have come across quite negative at times. And do you know what? I apologize for that.

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But we're getting back to the way it should be now. We really are. And as I say, I've

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had a fire lit in my belly. I really have. And to me personally, the MS doing what it

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does to me has made me realize that it's not anything about giving in. Absolutely not a

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chance. It's all about pushing forward. MS can progress as much as it wants to progress.

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So am I. I'm going to progress as a person. I'm going to keep moving on and I'm going

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to keep going because that's what I want to do. I'm not going to sit here today and start

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talking about symptoms or anything like that. Do you know what? We do that every week. We're

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not doing that this week. We're probably not doing it next week unless we really have to.

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Right now, this is about me talking about, as the podcast says, Mike's journey with MS.

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Mike's MS journey. Same difference. But this is about me now being me and explaining what

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I'm doing to fight back on that journey. And it's not going to be easy. It's not going

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to be quick, but it's going to happen. Can't stop that. It's going to happen. And hopefully

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it's coming across that I'm actually seeming a lot happier myself because I am. And again,

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this is the route we're going to start going down. I am always going to talk MS because

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that's what this is about, but I am going to start tweaking the show from time to time.

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If I've got things to talk about in the real world, I'm going to start talking about. I'm

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not going to continue spending 20, 25, 30 minutes a show just talking about my struggles.

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I will talk about what I'm doing to fight them. That's fact. But actually, let's change

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it up a little bit and just for a few weeks and see how it goes. I'm also going to start

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talking about what is going on in the world, how that can affect everything with me. We'll

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see. We'll just see. We'll have a look and see if it makes a difference. Because actually

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I've enjoyed this. I've not enjoyed having to talk about something kind of negative in

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terms of the trolling, but I've enjoyed talking about something different. I've enjoyed not

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concentrating on my personal negatives. It's time we open the door a little bit and start

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moving the goalposts and improving. It's a good word that improving. I like it. It's

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a very good word, but I'm going to call that the end for today's show. Thank you very much

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for listening. I know this has been a totally different one. It really has been totally

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different, but I hope you've enjoyed it. I totally mean what I say in terms of social

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media. These people that go on and just troll clowns, absolute clowns, get them off social

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media, get them off the internet. Can't use it properly. Don't use it at all. Let's have

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the internet for people that want to use it for just chilling out, using it to relax,

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using it to talk to each other in a good manner. That for me is what the internet should be

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about. It's certainly what social media should be about. And that will do for today. Have

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a great week and I will speak to you soon. Bye bye.