ON one of my many visits to PC World (laptop screen cracked by careless daughter who is footing the repair bill) I became fascinated by a device that you use when playing sport.

It records your movements, enabling you to study and analyse your technique. ‘Instantly replay your serve in 360 degrees, from any angle’ says the blurb describing the tennis gadget, a small device which attaches to your racquet.

‘Measure the time it takes from first movement to racquet drop to discover and perfect your service, motion and timing.’

There’s another for golf, and one for baseball – and they connect to your mobile phone so you can dissect your game as you queue in the bank or wait for a bus.

Isn’t anything simply done for fun anymore?

Technological advancements are all well and good, but they are threatening to take the pleasure out of everything.

My daughter goes jogging with her phone and is more concerned about her time and possible record-breaking – calculated using a sports app – than the idea of fresh air and exercise. I offered to go with her once but she worried that “you will stop and talk to people.”

Walking apps are the same. You see walkers intently labouring to walk 40,000 steps in five hours, not remotely interested in the scenery. It’s a leisure pursuit for heaven’s sake, not a project for data analysis.

If life is all about analysing whatever we do, can I suggest a few new applications. What about a washing-up app that monitors how many pots you have washed and how well?

I would strap it to my daughters’ arms, but first I’d have to show them where the kitchen sink is.

My husband would love a bed-making gadget which he would insist that I wore. Having endured a childhood of boarding schools, he claims to know how to make beds “properly”, and ridicules me for not being able to do hospital corners. The device could measure them exactly using a formula based on mattress depth x tautness of sheet ÷ sharpness of fold.

For adults, an arguments app could keep score on both sides, with graphs showing who has the upper hand throughout and who ultimately comes out on top. It could record tones of voice and hand gestures, to play back later.

All of these would be a lot more useful in most homes than perfecting your golf swing.