How much New Media, iMedia, eMedia is good for you?

Social media, the internet, computer games. It's a huge learning curve. Blogging, tweeting, linking to networking sites, Facebook, YouTube and others, how much time do you (does one?) spend on line?

We used to communicate (in recent history), by that quaint delivery system known commonly as The Post. For a small fee, written correspondence (friends, family, acquaintances), or typed stuff from banks, solicitors and the professional institutions, could be written, dispatched and delivered to the intended recipient within days. And then someone invented the telegraph and the telephone.

Today, The Post comprises junk mail, bills, bank statements and other 'official' stuff, along with the odd birthday card from a distant relative who hasn't twigged on to Moonpig.com or other similar facility.

Now we have the accursed love it or hate it email. Somehow, no matter how hard you try, your inbox will gradually fill with communications because, if you visit websites, use the internet to check your bank account, find a good day out, book a holiday, view the news, the weather forecast, shop on line or go to price comparison websites, someone will email you.

We spend hours looking for anything; bargains, fashion tips, sports results, cars, recipes and shopping are just a few.

How long do you spend reading the emails, deciding whether it's something you want to keep, or delete, or flag, or mark as unread or forward or save or mark as junk or phishing? Too long.

If you're in business or looking for employment or providing/seeking pretty much anything, you need to be engaged with the media. You need a website and all the paraphernalia (other bits) that goes with it. You can spend hours refining your on line presence.

Then there's the calendar to update and the to-do list, and Bob's just popped up in the corner on Chat or Messenger, Chloe's appeared on line with Skype and you've loads of texts on your mobile.

You have 255 hours of television recorded because you didn't have time to watch it and Lucy (age 6) is home from school wanting to play Moshie Monsters on the iPad. Young Freddie (10) arrives half an hour later and he needs to go on line to research his homework - and he needs your help. Duane and Manjit arrive so attention switches to the Xbox in the bedroom for some soccer game.

All you really want to do is hibernate somewhere with your eBook and find out what happened to Merlin after the explosion. But then your partner/best friend/mother-in-law phones to say they'll be late because the Sat Nav's not working and they're lost in the middle of Manchester/Birmingham/ Leeds/ wherever so you won't be able to get to your adult education class this evening. You're on week 3 of the Computers for Beginners course.

You give up and decide a session on Call of Duty, shoot 'em up and let 'em die is what you need to shift the tension. You log in, find an on line session and ...there's a power cut ...no, just joking! You hear the stupid tune you set as a reminder on your iPhone - time to get the tea ready.

Hey ho - such is life.