THEY report that the internet has now become addictive to so many young people.

I can recall back to the mere mid-eighties when all this computer madness first began.

When we had exclusive mobile phones the size of a brick that only the ‘yuppies’ could afford, IBM computers in offices, but an Amstrad PCW at home.

In both cases they produced green letters on a black screen, but unlike a typewriter, we could delete or move text without Tippex or a rewrite.

We could even play Space Invaders. MSDOS and ASCII were the thing to know to get ahead.

It was so fantastic.

Then came ‘Electronic mail’ (email). Most were first scared of it. Even companies. Hooking up via the telephone was just asking for trouble. Then came the internet. It began to look interesting, especially searching for information, soon followed by MSN social websites.

Today, the computer along with smart phones, iPads, Facebook, Twitter, etc, has just seemed to overtake us all.

Yet there is far more to come with this ever growing technology. As now an old age pensioner, I try so hard to keep up, but somehow I feel it is all heading to a place I do not want to go.

CHRISTINE PETERS, Bournemouth