Mum, you’ve got 300 free texts! My daughter exclaimed excitedly.

After fiddling around with my phone she had changed my ‘package’ to one that allows me that many texts for free, providing I top it up every month by a certain amount.

Not that I would ever use 300 texts – I don’t know that many people. Come to think of it, I only ever text a handful of friends, and none of them would take kindly to being bombarded with meaningless messages telling them what I had for tea, when I washed my hair and what I thought of last night’s telly.

This is obviously what people are telling each other as they travel to work at the crack of dawn. The commuter train I catch sets off before 7am, but the station platform is awash with people tapping into their mobiles and – to my amazement – receiving replies. I’m fascinated as to what people can find to say to each other at that time in the morning. If my phone bleeped I’d assume it was an emergency. But once they’re aboard the train the texting continues at a frenzied pace.

I began to gain some insight as to how this world works at home, when my daughter’s phone began to go off at what I would call anti-social times – before school, and late into the evening. One morning I was trying to have a lie in (until 8.15am – that’s my treat) and kept getting disturbed by her ring tone.

I wasn’t best pleased and told her not to text back, as her precious, hard-earned credit would be lost.

She laughed. “Muuummm, you’re so stuuupid. I’m not going to use up my credit - I get nine million free texts every hour.” Or some ridiculous figure along those lines. This awarding of free texts by mobile phone companies explains why so many people constantly text like there’s no tomorrow, saying so much about nothing in particular.

I get sick of the sound of my daughter’s mobile and, over Christmas, her younger sister’s phone was just as bad, going off at three second intervals as her eight million – or so it seemed – pals wished her well.

Between them, they must spend at least half the day making and receiving calls, or fiddling about on their phones. It makes you wonder what people did before these gadgets came into being.

I may be a Luddite but, as they say, if you can’t beat them… Now I’ve got my 300 free texts, I’m obliged to use them. My friends had better prepare themselves for that 5am call about last night’s TV.