I’ve always thought of mobile phones as the new cigarette but of course they’re much worse. Let me tell you then just how much I miss smoking cigarettes. On certain mornings when the music’s right and I’m having a cup of tea it’s like my soul is yearning. All the more so because I never ever give in.

I gave up smokes when my kids were born, but I’ve never been able to give up the mobile phone because I’ve never had one. These days it seems like it’s just about the most distinctive badge I wear. At home when the kids were old enough to beseech me I’d say nup, the mobile phone is a lame companion. I was such an annoying dad. I’d also say to other parents, “you don’t let your children cross the main road on their own so how come you pop them on the school bus every day with an unsupervised pocket-rocket of violence, ridicule and porn? You may well be helicopter parents,” I’d say, “but in this instance you’re behaving more like drunkards.”

Mobile phones have taken over most people’s lives.Credit: Fairfax Media

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