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The moment the key plot points of a TV show are spoiled for you is a harrowing one – all those hours of binge watching ruined by a casual glance at Twitter.
In this modern age of seemingly unavoidable social media and global reach, TV fans in one country who see a show before others and want to discuss what they’ve seen can make the internet a dangerous place.
Game of Thrones – the biggest TV show out there to many – returns to UK screens on Monday night, but has already been broadcast in the US, which means info from the episode is out there.
But fear not; there are a few things you can do to avoid finding out the fate of your favourite characters.
If you’re using Chrome, there are a few plug-ins available in the Chrome Store that can help clean up your internet so that any references to Game of Thrones are blanked out.
Spoiler Alert is one of the most effective which, once downloaded – for free – and activated with the Game of Thrones tagline will block out any website or link that contains references to the show and characters within it.
Be warned, it can be quite extreme when it comes to blocking, covering up entire websites that may just have a single Game of Thrones mention. You can click to close these before risking seeing something you don’t want to.
If you’re using Tweetdeck, you can also take control of social media by using the Mute feature to block keywords and phrases from appearing on your timeline. You’ll find the Mute feature within settings on Tweetdeck, and though you can only mute key words from within Tweetdeck, the feature applies within the official Twitter app too.
In more extreme cases, you could activate Airplane mode on your phone, a move that would cut it off from the internet completely, which would stem the tide of social media and news that gets pushed to it.
Of course, you would be essentially “bricking” your phone for the day in the process.
Instead, it might be better to simply avoid your social media and news apps in the run-up to the show airing. The Facebook, Twitter and Instagram apps can be deleted without compromising your account if you really don’t trust yourself.
Muting your WhatsApp notifications might be a good move too.
