I WATCHED an advert last night encouraging people to control their heating and lighting from their mobile phone.

I know that, with the right apps and accessories, you can also change the channel on your television using a smartphone, draw your curtains while you are out and check your home security. Amazingly, you can even cook a meal by remotely controlling an oven using the device and monitor your heart rate before and after exercising.

This is the future. My daughters do almost everything on their mobiles: they check their bank statements, fire off emails, listen to music, take photographs, order clothing, book holidays, everything. They check bus times using their phones, mocking me as I try to fathom out the spreadsheet-type lists at the bus stop.

And, of course, they read newspapers on their mobiles. I remember when I used to travel to work on the train and almost everyone was reading a paper. In fact, I tried to avoid sitting beside anyone scanning a broadsheet because it had a tendency to flap in my face as they turned the pages. Now, apart from odd person reading Metro, barely anyone sits with a newspaper. They are all glued to their mobile phones.

Nearly one third of UK smartphone owners use the device as their primary source of news, according to a survey by market research firm YouGov. And 42 per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds in the UK find out what is happening in the world through their mobiles.

I can’t think of any object in history that has ruled our lives to this extent. For many people, they are vital to every area of their life. It’s an addiction.When I take the train to work, almost everyone in the packed carriage is fiddling with a smartphone, reading the news, checking emails, playing games or responding to messages.

Our relationship with the device is a 24-hour affair: almost half of young people check their mobiles during the night after they have gone to bed, a poll by Digital Awareness UK found. A survey of 2,750 11- to 18-year-olds found one in ten admitted checking their phones for notifications at least ten times a night The subject was raised recently at the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, warning how night-time usage led to pupils arriving at are school tired and unable to concentrate.

Adults are just as bad. When my daughters lived at home I would spot the light under their doors as I visited the bathroom during the night.

Upon waking, one in ten adults reach for their smartphone. Within 15 minutes of getting up, 55 per cent of adults have checked theirs, research, by financiers Deloitte found.

Most people keep their phones beside their beds at night.

These are the averages for adults - the figures for teenagers will be much higher.

I am a dying breed - still inhabiting a world where I prefer to sit down and read a newspaper, flick through a clothing catalogue, have bank statements posted to my home and close my curtains by hand when I am in the house.

Of course I have a mobile phone - in fact, I have two, one provided by work - but I use it sparingly. I have never downloaded an app, and never ‘visited’ an ‘app store.’

I admit, knowing how to download bus timetables would be useful, but for now I’m sticking with the complex spreadsheets.

Just one thing intrigues me about smartphone behaviour – like many young people, my daughters check their phones every nanosecond, but when I text them I rarely receive a reply.

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