In Monday's keynote address at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference – a week-long gathering for developers that has grown in pomp, ceremony and stature to become the tech equivalent of a cross between the Oscars and the State of the Union address – the company announced new features built into its soon-to-be-released iOS 12 operating system to tackle our growing addiction to phones and tablets.

These include an enhanced "do not disturb" mode that hides your alerts during sleeping hours and “Screen Time”, which provides a report of your phone usage and allows for time limits to be set on the use of certain applications.  Google has introduced similar measures for its Android phone operating system.

Apple has also developed more in-depth parental controls that allow parents to block the use of particular apps on their children's devices during specified hours and have more oversight over how the devices can be used.

We have become inseparable from our mobile phones. The term "nomophobia" (no-mobile-phone-phobia) has entered our lexicon and a study by MIT Sloan Management School has shown most people who have to "give up" their phone for a day suffer at least some level of anxiety.

Google searches for "phone addiction" have increased four-fold since the dawn of the smartphone age 10 years ago. Even more alarmingly, a study has shown that heavy phone and internet usage changes the chemical balance within the brain, making people less focused and more vulnerable to distraction.