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Living with three children who have been growing up with more technology than I ever dreamed of, it's instructive to watch what they use and what they don't.

They can all logon to email accounts and games sites (the ones I give them permission for, I'm not careless). They each have their preferred games machines - Wii for the 9-year-olds, PSP for the 15-year-old.

But what I find most unexpected is that they are unadventurous when it comes to new technology - I am more likely to go into a shop to try the latest minicomputer or GPS-enabled phone than they are.

For me technology is an adventure, for them an ingrained culture.

This was brought home to me during recent negotiations with my 15-year-old about a replacement for her iPod, which has finally died with a failed battery. She assures me there is a European directive somewhere which makes it obligatory for her to have access to music-on-earphones so she can ignore us at key moments. And so "I just have to have a new one, Dad... I'll go mad if I don't."

We went through the usual format: "Can't you get a cheap MP3 player?" "Oh, Dad, you just don't understand, it's got to be Apple otherwise my music won't download properly!"

One of the mobile phone companies is offering a deal on the new iPhone, which can play iTunes and is a phone and GPS and all the rest... the kind of thing I would have promised to give up pocket money for if I had ever had the chance.

But no, it's too much technology, she said. "My iPod is my friend but my phone is just a phone so I don't want them together."

The iPod (deceased) had a name apparently - Minnie. There's probably a funeral rite for dead iPods.

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