Now, don’t get me wrong. I love digital. I eat it up for breakfast. I’m lost without my iPhone - on the one occasion I accidentally left it at home I felt like I was missing a limb all day. Total panic set in – how would anybody reach me? How would I get a message to them? The fact that I was going to be at a desk all day with a landline phone and a computer didn’t seem to abate my panic as I still had to manage the 1 hour 30 minute commute home with no means of communication. Shock. Horror. 

This led me to thinking a bit more about this apparent total reliance on a small device no bigger than a chocolate bar.  And I didn’t like what I discovered. Quietly, stealthily this little device has started to control me! Where once I would have opened my curtains and looked outside to decide what to wear, I now can’t seem to function without an app to tell me what to wear (what DID we do before the weather app?). And perish the thought I should leave the house without checking to see if my train is still running on time (thank you National Rail App). I sneered at my colleague when she got her paper tube map out the other day – what total madness! Why use paper when you have an app for that? And don’t get me started on my weekends…I’ve done my week’s food shop from the comfort of my armchair (the store is actually 4 minutes from my house, but I’ll pay £6 for you to do it for me thank you very much Tesco’s app). I’ve had a lovely catch up with my friends (yes, I’m still in the armchair, thank you Facebook app), I’ve decked out my bedroom with new curtains (Next Home App – very user friendly and quick. 5 minutes in my armchair has never been so expensive!). I can even pander to the hypochondriac in me with my lovely new heart monitor app - seriously, how accurate can a beam of light passing through your finger really be…when did I become such a sucker for believing the techno-babble? And where once I might have taken a sneaky peek at my work emails on a Sunday evening…I now find myself having 10-15 sneaky peeks a day. Oddly enough there is rarely a highly pressing email to respond to during X Factor on a Saturday night…but you never know. Gary Barlow you will just have to wait (on Sky Plus pause of course – yes I pre-set it from my app when I was on that nice quiet country walk).

Much as I appreciate the benefits technology has brought both to my private and professional world, I have to face the facts…I am living in a totally connected virtual world that never switches off and judging by the number of people plugged into a device on my commute every day, I am most definitely not alone.

But where will it end? The Virtual Event World which “opened its virtual doors” this year for me epitomizes technology that’s gone too far. As an agency we have relished the opportunity to bring digital and interactive to the physical event world, we are excited at the convergence and the enriching and engaging journey we can offer our clients when these two worlds collide, but to take the physical event world to a total virtual experience, complete with 3D stands and virtual hosts? It might stimulate one of the senses, but what about the other four? What about the good old fashioned face to face – the small nuances of body language and expression that no amount of technology can replace (yes, don’t tell me…there’s an app for that too right?). 

The Economist argue that Ikea’s decision to change the design of their iconic “Billy” bookcase is to cater for a new digital era with an ever decreasing demand on the printed book: http://econ.st/rbQ47d. With two “Y” generation sons of my own I’ve experienced the declining physical word for myself. I can’t remember the last time they picked up a pen… “But Mum, why can’t we text Grandma to thank her for the birthday present?”. A family night in doesn’t have quite the same meaning now – we may be physically “in” the room, but with 4 iPhone owners in the family we are rarely actually “in” the same room!

Cunning plan - we’ll go out to a restaurant to take ourselves away for some more meaningful conversation.  So how thrilled I was to see Pizza Express’s new “free WiFi/Cloud” ad campaign in the press this week – great news everyone, now you can send that last minute work email whilst dining out at Pizza Express with your friends. You need never switch off! Your friends may be left hanging and drinking your share of the Pinot while you tap away, but at least that email got picked up at 10pm.

So, am I going to give up my iPhone? Am I going to fundamentally change my ways and become an anti-techno babbler? Er, come on, let’s get real. I’d be in serious withdrawal after about a day and I am, after all, a techno geek of the 90’s web boom at heart. But, to quote the very wise man behind this digital revolution “Your time on this Earth is limited, don’t live someone else’s life, live by your vision.” – so whilst Steve Jobs’ legacy has brought us digital tools to enrich our lives, I think there is a real clue behind his words. They are not there to replace living our own “real lives”! So, I may just revisit my digital boundaries and switch off the phone for a quiet meal with my husband now and then. I may reconnect my family with the physical world from time to time. I may insist on the odd face to face meeting to get under the skin of my client’s brief and forgive me if it’s a bit passé, but I will most definitely fill my holiday suitcase with paperbacks that will invariably crack and fall apart in the sun. Fishing pages out of the pool is just part of the “real world” experience right?