WE have this pressing need to be connected to people, either through your phone, your laptop, or your TV.

But what happens when you simply want to avoid everyone?

We spend our lives trying to get connected with people, and then spend the rest of the time trying to figure out how to avoid them.

Surprisingly, despite technological advances, avoiding folk is so much easier these days.

This has much to do with how lazy we have become as a nation.

I get a text message, and a call, and if I don’t want to speak to the person, I will just not reply.

And if you don’t reply, on the whole, people will leave you alone. It is highly unlikely that the person will come knocking on your door.

The reason they won’t come knocking on your door is because the vast majority of them just can’t be bothered.

But then there are the people who simply don’t take ‘no’ for an answer. I have one friend who has an annoying habit of ringing, and ringing, until you pick up the phone.

If I have not answered the first seven times, it is unlikely I will answer the eighth call.

It can be quite annoying. None more so than when you do finally answer the phone and realise he isn’t stuck down a ten-foot ditch somewhere.

It is normally some inane question that could have been answered by anyone, anywhere.

Then there is the horrible moment when a person rings, and then sends a supporting text in the hope it will help his cause. The supporting text normally states ‘ring me’.

I have some advice for all those sending supporting texts. Just state in the text what the problem is, and if I wish to answer your query, I will get back to you.

To make things worse, we have a growing number of people telling each other where they have checked in on social network sites.

And then those people who weren’t invited to the ‘do’ feel as if they were indeed ignored in some way.

Maybe this avoiding thing isn’t all it is cut out to be?