I was a late adopter of technology. In the 1990s, I lived off-grid. If anyone wanted me, they had to call my pager. When it buzzed, I’d walk two miles across fields to ring them back from a dusty phone box on a country lane. Even after I rejoined the modern world I remained a Luddite. I was late to email and so late to laptops that I wrote all my degree coursework by hand. I was years late to Face
![Olivia Laing: ‘I was hooked and my drug was Twitter’](https://cdn-ak-scissors.b.st-hatena.com/image/square/829a0c27003fb5a496ae3cd8c9d70a0625d3323a/height=288;version=1;width=512/https%3A%2F%2Fi.guim.co.uk%2Fimg%2Fmedia%2Fb14ae8647fbfff50f87a9fed6aaafa9c141b0f79%2F0_1294_3397_2039%2Fmaster%2F3397.jpg%3Fwidth%3D1200%26height%3D630%26quality%3D85%26auto%3Dformat%26fit%3Dcrop%26overlay-align%3Dbottom%252Cleft%26overlay-width%3D100p%26overlay-base64%3DL2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdG8tZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc%26enable%3Dupscale%26s%3D4ebc18cc9ddb9c4a6da26bbb62156886)