Two great pieces of advice in today's Sunday Times, which in their different ways go against the tide of mainstream thinking and what passes for 'progress' in the minds of some.

First off, Andy Pemberton has a great blast against the current, slightly cretinous fad for so-called 'Twittering.' He asks:

'What kind of person shares information with the world the minute they get it? And just who are the “followers” willing to tune into this rolling news service of the ego?

The clinical psychologist Oliver James has his reservations. “Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”

“We are the most narcissistic age ever,” agrees Dr David Lewis, a cognitive neuropsychologist and director of research based at the University of Sussex. “Using Twitter suggests a level of insecurity whereby, unless people recognise you, you cease to exist. It may stave off insecurity in the short term, but it won’t cure it.”

Too true. Instead you might like to take Julie Burchill's sound advice a few pages along in the Style section, and get volunteering. Julie is talking here about depressed, insecure middle-aged women, but it really applies equally to everybody:

'...there’s something depressingly predictable about the idea of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash being blown on “therapy” as a cure for all ills. I personally believe that many problems are made worse, not better, by dwelling on them. Any child knows that a scabby knee never heals if it’s continually picked at. And perhaps those middle-aged women troubled by empty-nest syndrome, southbound tits or whatever, should ask themselves not what society can do for them, but what they can do for society. That is, voluntary work. Only two hours a week — which you can certainly spare if you have time for any sort of “therapy”, be it wallowing on a couch or trudging round the clothes shops — will fix you, you’ll find, in a way that no self-centred, empty, temporary fix, such as exercising or “eating right” (you absolute tool!) ever can.'