Hi, my name is Matthew and I’m a cyber-addict. It’s a condition where you can’t put down your smartphone or stop surfing the internet on your laptop. It makes your loved ones feel neglected and angry with you. And it makes you feel bad about yourself. 

According to the latest research from the World Economic Forum, if you’re a cyber-addict you’re not alone. Studies show that the typical person in developed countries like ours looks at their cellphone between 150 and a massive 300 times a day. That’s an average of once every five minutes – including the time we’re meant to be asleep.

And that’s the average figure, including people who can’t possibly be looking at their phone every five minutes, like factory workers, or brain surgeons, or truck drivers, or teachers. So it must be worse for many of you. Some of us are literally on our phones all the time; no breaks for anything else.

At my 12-year-old daughter’s school – the same posh girls’ school where Mike Hosking sends his girls – they have an annual father-daughter breakfast.  And last year the girls made quite a funny video of what they love and don’t love about their dads.

And on the “don’t love” list – second only to their dads’ farts! – was that they don’t like that some of us seem to be more interested in our phones than our own kids. But the saddest bit was this: when they said it on the video, you could look round the room and quite a few of the dads where actually on their phones that very moment.

And it’s not just dads. Apparently, the average college student spends nearly nine hours on their phones – each and every day.

Between 80 and 90% of us use our smartphones when we’re driving – calling, texting, emailing, even surfing the internet.  We worry about speeding and we worry about drunk driving, but surely typing out an email while you’re driving is more dangerous than both?

The same study suggests people no longer think they’re being rude if their smartphone goes off at dinner with family and friends, at a sporting event, or even during a church service.

We talked yesterday about the good behavior of the millennials this New Year’s Eve and how teen sex is on the decline – but one study suggests that may just be because today’s teenage boys are too busy looking at dating apps and online porn to bother going out looking for a girlfriend!

So, are you a cyber addict too? Is it upsetting your relationships with your friends and families? Or do you know someone who is a cyber-addict? Someone you love? Someone you wish would talk to you, rather than play with their phone? What can we do to get better – to help us all put down our phones? Taking your calls this morning on 0800 80 10 80.