I just splashed out on a new widescreen monitor, which I have rotated and set alongside the near-identical widescreen monitor I already own. Now I have two tall screen monitors, side by side, and I feel like the operator of a nuclear power station.

Publilius Syrus, a Roman slave with a knack for writing maxims, observed that “to do two things at once is to do neither”. Presumably he would not have approved of the twin-monitor arrangement, had he had the faintest idea what a twin monitor was.

Poor old Publilius would have gone into conniptions if he’d seen what today’s teenagers get up to: watching television while sitting with a laptop, surfing the web, sending text messages and instant messages, and listening to music. No wonder so many commentators are concerned about our growing addiction to multitasking.