ONCE we were two, and then we added a cat and a daughter.

But now our family life is being affected by something else again – something relatively small, smart and apparently full of allure, given how much time my husband spends touching and staring at it.

Yes, it’s his iPhone. Surely we cannot be the only couple in the world separated more and more by some plastic and bits of wizardry?

Said phone is in my husband’s hand, on his person in his pocket or very near – say, the arm of the chair in which he’s sitting – for every single minute of every day.

And that includes sleeping, as it watches over him by night, charging away in a slot of his special alarm clock.

It demands his time and attention in a way that we, the ladies in his life, cannot seem to manage. He giggles with it, wonders at it and yes, loves it. A lot. So much so that I often find myself reprimanding him as if he’s a teenager, insisting it is put away during meals, conversations and other family occasions.

I detest the expression that comes over his face when he’s been on it for too long, that ‘huh?’ reaction that makes me want to take it and hide it away in a drawer somewhere.

He’s not alone, that’s the worrying thing. I am always spotting adults zoned out to the world and into their technology instead of spending face time or, for want of a better few words, being properly present in the real world.

They’re everywhere – almost being run over, ignoring their children at play parks, walking through town with their heads down or neglecting who they’re with to instead have a junky, irrelevant chat with the virtual world. I think we should be quite worried about the effect technology can have on our personal relationships.

The builder who reconstructed our bathroom told me that he – and several of his co-workers – were seriously concerned about their home lives thanks to the amount of time their partners were spending on Facebook (which, of course, can now be accessed through most phones) every single evening.

Instead of having a catch up and a chat together, strengthening those essential familial bonds which keep a couple going, quite frequently now in households everywhere, one person is retreating into the virtual world, leaving others feeling frustrated and a bit neglected.

I can understand that in these stressful times people might want to embrace escapist, frivolous messaging, snooping and surfing, but before we really upset those close to us, I think it’s time to get a bit more real.