Special thanks to Adam Bowman who kindly gave me these fish. I'm really getting a lot of pleasure from feeding them and watching them swim about. The two little ones are real characters!  Ah. Now hold on... They may act like real fish and give me similar enjoyment to that of real fish, but they're really just a brilliant Flash widget. Yes. It's true. You can indeed feed them (try it)  and they will actually  follow your cursor around their pond. But they are certainly not real. 

So, if Adam had sold them to me as real fish, and I was happy with my new wriggly friends, would that be such a bad thing? Is it inherently unethical to market synthetic substitutes with the promise of genuine happiness? If technology gives consumers the illusion of contentment, albeit a facsimile of what they think they are buying, is any harm done?

Before I go on, let me stress emphatically  that Mr Bowman is a talented, brilliant man and has not, in any way mislead me. I knew from the get-go that these aren't real fish, OK? What's more, I'm a huge fan of technology. However, these fish do serve as a useful analogy for a wider phenomenon; that of virtual stuff being embraced as a perfectly reasonable alternative to 'real' stuff.

Here's a brief self-assessment task for you to try. Draw up a list of things that you like. Things that make you especially happy. Aim to think of at least 10. If you're struggling, you're probably suffering from depression.

 Next, mark up your list with asterisks (*)  to indicate which of your favourite things are 'Natural', in the sense that they are not reliant on technology. Here's my list...

If more than half of your list has asterisks against it, you're probably in a good place right now. 

Could technology replace any of these things for you? Nope. Probably not. Although in my list I do recognise that Cheese and Music have certainly evolved over the years thanks to technology.

If less than 40% of your list is starred... oh dear. You're probably the perfect profile for a Tamagocchi child and genuinely believe you are 'close buddies' with all your friends on Facebook. Media players, games consoles, iPhone apps, social network sites and what-have-you are all great for enhancing real life. But if they eclipse or replace real experience, it will end in tears. Marketing people who eschew all tangible experiences for completely digital communications really are missing a trick. The best digital marketing enhances and improves the 'real world'. 

If you'd like a more thorough assessment of your own list, mail me  for a free online counselling session.