EVERY now and again I will read a friend’s Facebook status threatening cruelty, or its modern-day equivalent “un-friending”, when a virtual chum invites them to play Candy Crush.

My finger automatically prods the “like” button with force because I feel their pain.

When people invite me to play Candy Crush Saga, Soda or Sodom and Gomorrah (It doesn’t exist, but if it did I may play that one), I want to send them a message asking them to take a long, hard look at their lives. Have they considered voluntary work to while away the vacant hours of their day?

Tory MP Nigel Mills would be one of those people. He was caught playing Candy Crush on his iPad at a Parliamentary Committee which was clearly debating an intensely boring issue like homelessness or the nation’s reliance on foodbanks. Actually, it doesn’t really matter what they were debating, he was busy trying to smash through gaming levels and therefore betraying the people who elected him to fight their corner.

A new study has revealed that nearly one in five people admit to having played a game on their phone or tablet during a work meeting. The average game is 16 minutes, so that’s a lot of time wasted.

I really don’t get the attraction. The idea of a post-Christmas dinner Monopoly session, Twister or charades has caused me to offer to wash up by hand even when there’s a dishwasher present.

It’s the same when my kids were young. Call me a bad mother, but I never played games with them, I left that to their dad. My contribution to their development was by constantly talking to them and encouraging them to talk back. Consequently, they don’t seem to have suffered in any way, apart from the fact that they never shut up.

I understand some people find gaming relaxing and that’s fine, but when it encroaches on work time you have to wonder if it’s becoming an obsession.

And while the mind is occupied with symbols and levels it doesn’t have to think about anything else. That’s OK for a temporary escape, but worrying when we’re not dealing with life’s issues because we’ve become CC dependant.

And here’s a conspiracy theory for you. Could Candy Crush and games of its type be dumbing down the nation? If you fear that’s the case, then switch off and have a good old fashioned conversation with a real human being.

You may actually enjoy it.