The one person you should contact on Christmas Day
Commentary: Everyone knows someone who is on their own on Christmas Day. Through technology, you can make them feel a little better.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Perhaps they're just staring at their Christmas tree, hoping you'll be in touch.
This is a time when we get wrapped up in our families.
Or in our new electronic toys, of course.
Once Christmas morning comes along, eating, drinking, giving and, of course, taking dominate minds and fill hearts and stomachs.
Please, though, spare one moment of your day for those who are alone.
Everyone knows someone who will see no one today. The alone will sit with one, two, even three gadgets around them. They will watch their iPads or TVs, perhaps go for a lonely walk, only to return to empty rooms.
The alone might have just gone through something painful. They might, only through fault of circumstance, have ended up in a place in which no one seems to care.
They might have just broken up with someone. They might have lost someone. They might have received a shock from precisely those who they thought loved them most, a shock that sent them into a hibernation.
They might be at work, staffing some necessary, lone outpost. They might even have chosen to isolate themselves as a form of self-protection.
Being suddenly alone, perhaps they received invitations but didn't want to be the spare part at someone else's festivities.
These are the very people to contact today. You have so many easy means by which to do it. Yes, there are phone calls, but who does that these days?
Not when there's Skype, FaceTime, Snapchat, Facebook, WhatsApp, SMS and Google Hangout.
The alone are unlikely to reach out. Why crash someone else's party?
It's down to the luckier, then, to pick up one of their many communication tools, just to lift someone's heart for a fleeting moment.
The alone won't admit they wish someone, just anyone, would get in touch. They won't admit that, even if they're partially responsible for their current situation, they'd love to know that someone has given them a thought this day.
They might be aunts, uncles, friends or people you hardly know. They might be people you used to know, but somehow time has distanced them from you and vice versa.
You don't have to say much. The mere act speaks already. You can simply tell them you're thinking of them. You can tell them that they're neither forgotten nor alone. You can reminisce or even offer a little hope for the coming year.
You can even invite them to your house because, let's face it, families have their limits.
Picking up one of your gadgets and giving the alone a moment of your time costs little but, to them, might be worth so much.
Please do it.
Now would be a good time.