The social networking revolution has swept offices, homes and mobile phones across the world, apart from mine, in the last year.

From once regarding myself as a reasonably technology savvy individual who could get his mental faculties around any concept, I have come to the quick realisation that I am a Luddite. But I have no regrets.

Why do people have an irresistable urge to be liked and appreciated?

Most of us have only one or two close friends, those to whom we can discuss anything and everything and such has been the case since Adam and Eve. To have more makes them not friends but acquaintances.

From the point of view of a 50-something grumpy curmudgeon, it looks as if the world has gone crazy. Everyone seems to want universal approval and if they don't get it then something is wrong.

Let me tell you, dislike is a fact of life as is duplicity, boorishness and the sad fact that Carlton has not won a premiership for many a long season.

And have all you Twitterers and Facebookers got nothing better to do than wear out the ends of your fingers at a keyboard and your eyes staring at a monitor?

I had better go now. I am off to the pub to meet some acquaintances and twerp some twaddle. I am proud to say I have no Twitter, Facebook or other social networking account.

I prefer to call my friends on the phone or, best of all, meet up and talk face to face. Hence I can proudly sign myself off as Twitterfree