UPDATED FOR 2021: We're asking Meta (and other social media companies) to create a new online status indicator - a yellow dot - which we can switch on to show friends that we're consciously "on-call" and ready to listen if they need to talk.

In Messenger, the green dot indicates that I am "active now". Other social media has similar indicators - online, available, and so on.

But often when we're online...we're also occupied. So what if we had a similar indicator in our social media apps that we could activate, sort of like a do not disturb sign, except the opposite. Do disturb me. I'm listening.

This petition is about challenging social media companies like Facebook to create this kind of feature. Hence the yellow dot...

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Something subtle but which at the same time makes our status clear to our friends - in the same way the green dot does. Something uniform and instantly recognisable. 

At the school I work at, there are different ways in which students can report concerns - all represented by the colour yellow. For example, a yellow box where they can put (anonymous) messages to a member of the safeguarding team who can follow it up. A yellow door where they can go and talk to someone if they need to.

Yellow is the colour of well-being. And we're always thinking about other "yellow" ways in which they can communicate concerns.

So there's the concept: a yellow dot which we can switch on and even schedule to show when we're online and ready to listen. It's a simple idea, but it seems that now is the time to try and do anything to encourage us to listen more, and to be available for each other more.

When Caroline Flack was asked what the most important thing about her job was, she replied, "Being a good listener". Listening is our most important job as friends. But when friends aren't around, how do we know who is ready and able to listen to us if we need to talk? If social media is the default place most of us turn to to reach out ... well, right now, it's not making it easy enough for us to do this.

Of course there are helplines we can turn to when we're in crisis. We should continue to use and promote these. But often we want our first port of call to be someone we know. And we need to know who's around to listen. A coloured dot isn't going to change things, but friends can.

Thank you for reading this. I'm listening.