Could you last a day without your smartphone and its apps?

EVEN MY mum is hooked. The last time I visited, she refused to go offline. “I’ll just finish this game of bridge, if you don’t mind,” she said grinning, propping her iPad on the kitchen table for a quick game over dinner before heading out to play it IRL (In Real Life). I read a book on my tablet and we ate our stir fried chicken in a contented silence.

‘It’s almost absurd the extent to which we’re using our devices, says creative director of the Miss Ali Stage School, Alison Vard Miller. Earlier this year, she directed a play The Apps of Life about a Dublin family consumed by technology. Vard Miller is passionate about educating children to switch off occasionally.