Boo hoo! Too bad if you can't bear Game of Thrones spoilers

If the sudden deaths of dear characters wasn't enough, Game of Thrones fans in India now have to deal with an all-time high level of spoilers on the internet. No surprises there. Have you seen the show's viewership (piracy rate)?

Put the heatwave in the mix, and viola! You've got outrage. #FirstWorldProblems

I'm not fond of spoilers either, but five years of GoT have taught me one lesson - Mondays are like walking on egg shells. 

Take the latest one - I avoided Twitter and Facebook all morning, gave in for five minutes at lunch; ended up reading one Facebook status that said "I hate you Game of Thrones! I HATE you!" and one tweet saying "Hodor" - and I knew who died.

I could blame two harmless social media posts for my ability to do the math, or... Tip #1 Empathise

When we're on the internet, we often forget that it's a confluence of all kinds of people - they have different schedules, different jobs, different priorities - you get the drift. Now if someone just saw an episode that blew their socks, I guess they have the right to express it on their personal pages.

If someone shares a picture of their favourite-now-dead character with a #RIP, it's possible but not necessary that they're being cocky -

- They might actually be sad (like, who wasn't after the season five Jon Snow cliffhanger?) - They might actually be overjoyed (don't tell me you never chuckled at a Purple Wedding meme) - They might actually be done with the series for the one thousandth time (red wedding, Sansa's rape - it's a long list)

This comment on comedian Azeem Banatwalla's spoiler-anger post sums it up: "People will naturally post something they like. They will not be like "Oh wait, let the entire world see it first". Who are you to judge whether you are a bigger fan than someone who posts spoilers?"

Tip #2 Get real

Most of the West gets to watch the series comfortably, so nothing can really save social media from crawling with posts, tweets, forums, reviews, articles and other dark nights full of spoilers. We're actually one genius idea away from the series being live-tweeted per episode. Look at it like a football match or an Oscar ceremony, people get excited and they're going to react real-time. Whatcha gonna do about it?

And don't forget the part that comes after finally watching the show, where what-would-have-been spoilers become posts we share and revel in - a heart there, a crying emoji here and a quick change of wallpaper.

These rants just make us late-comers seem jealous of someone else's luxury of time.

Tip #3 Practise resistance

Try and give social media a miss until you watch the show. If that sounds too harsh, just unfollow or mute people who scare you with spoilers.

Tip #4 Find the right extension

There are a gazillion apps and extensions for browsers these days. And they can do anything. Seriously. Anything. There's one called Unspoiler that blocks "headlines, tweets, facebook posts and everything" that could be a spoiler.

Then there are a whole host of extensions that work as filters for different platforms - Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, you name it.

*** And if none of these tips fix the situation, just ask yourself if the brain-fry is worth it when five more episodes are still left to go and none of us have a clue about what GRRM is going to throw.