You log in via the leased line at work. At home it's broadband. Abroad your laptop is connected to a mobile phone. In hotels the phone is connected to a unified messaging server. Everywhere else the personal digital assistant comes out to play.

And when we can't connect directly, we get information sent to us by email, by phone, by fax. We want information now and we want it tailored just for us.

We tick boxes on websites stating our interest. On servers we create digital replicas of ourselves, processing information that fits our profile.

There we sit next to thousands of other cyber clones. Some of them are real, some don't even exist, many are duplicates of people who have lost their passwords.

Marketing people in fancy suits will write this up as 'better dissemination of information'. That's usually when they try to help. Suddenly, the information that we deem of interest is no longer good enough. Now we have to be sent emails about products and services 'that might be of interest'.

We are children. The computer is god. But what does all this give us? We don't get anything important. There will be no email saying: 'World ends'. No SMS from above reading: 'U R Ded, C U l8r'. We don't feel smarter. We don't feel like we know everything. We feel lost. We feel threatened.

But, clearly, it's our fault. There are surveys to prove it. There are products to prevent it. There are statistics. And statistics are proof of everything.

Statistics say that 33 per cent of email is useless, 66 per cent of companies have a spam problem, 52 per cent of users waste two man-hours each year dealing with their email, and 29 per cent of cat owners are more likely to get junk mail. The analyst reports say it all. But how do they tell us? Through email.

But, they say, better spam management will save us all. This is our Grail. But is it a fake quest, a waste of our time?

Statistics can always be called into question. How often do they tell us something we don't already know? The solution is fine in principle, but how do we deal better with spam? With filters? With better management? With a magic Smurf?

The answers aren't clear. Spam happens. For every server blocked another one takes its place. For every message identified and blocked, there are 10 more to take its place. For every 'helpful' email telling us about it, there's the Delete key.

I don't like any kind of bulk email but I don't worry about it, just as I don't worry about throwing away junk mail posted through my door. And I don't see a lot of surveys showing how much of my life I waste doing that.