Editor-At-Large: Privacy is down the YouTube and real friends are history

Funny how we worry about ID cards, CCTV cameras and erosion of our privacy, and yet we spend hours logging on to the internet without a care.

I loathe the idea of the Government storing my personal details on some bound-to-fail computer system and I baulk at the amount of personal information handed over to American immigration every time a British citizen visits the US.

Now, a court ruling in the US means that any shred of privacy you thought you had on the internet will be violated too. Google, which owns YouTube, has just been ordered to hand over the details of 100 million people who logged on to the video site, many of whom are British citizens.

Google is currently locked in battle with the communications company Viacom, which claims that millions of hours of unauthorised clips are watched on YouTube, so infringing its copyright and depriving it of valuable income. The details it wants include users' names, email addresses and details of the clips they viewed. All of which leads to the question, should we expect the same standards of privacy on the internet as we do in the real world?

My anxieties are probably not shared by the younger generation who are the prime users of sites such as YouTube. For them, this is the obvious way to conduct their lives. But apart from loss of privacy, there's another aspect of the internet causing concern, and that is how prolonged use of social networking sites and chatrooms can affect the ability to make friends and communicate in the real world.

Last week, one of Britain's leading psychiatrists attracted attention when he claimed that the generation born after 1990, who were five or younger when the internet really took off, will find it harder to form lasting friendships than their parents did. The constant fast-paced interchange possible on the internet, where you can adopt another persona, can leave users feeling let down by the real world.

Studies in Australia and the US have shown that people who spend hours on the internet can end up lonely and with fewer real friends than those in previous generations. Although there's no hard evidence of an internet suicide pact among the 22 young people who have died in Bridgend recently, they all belong in this age range.

Fooling around on the internet and playing at being another person isn't harmful in itself – as long as you accept that, in the real world, it takes a lot more work to get on with people. Real friendships are ultimately far more valuable, but they take more effort than the click of a mouse to sustain.

Christie's revenge is a dish best served in court

I'm loving the soapy drama unfolding in New York, where one-time supermodel Christie Brinkley has insisted that her messy divorce from hubby number four, Peter Cook, is heard in open court.

She claims he spent £2,000 a month viewing internet porn, and instead of arguing over who keeps the wedding photos they are bickering over who gets which boat and custody of their daughter, the unfortunately named Sailor Lee.

Christie sobbed buckets recalling the discovery that her husband was cheating with a teenager from his office, and the girl in question has turned up in court wearing exactly the same outfit as Christie – a super-tight beige skirt and a crisp, white shirt. After marrying Billy Joel, you'd think nothing shocked Christie.

Why more of us are glad to be like Gay

Depending on which survey you read, we've got between £140 and £155 less a month to spend – which is bad news for the chairman of Marks & Spencer, Sir Stuart Rose, who faces anxious shareholders at their AGM later this week.

Poor trading figures, with food sales down 4.5 per cent on 2007, have led city experts to predict he might be out of a job soon. Sir Stuart claims we are in the worst economic downturn since the 1990s – although rivals seem to be weathering the storm.

Less disposable income means we have to relearn the art of frugal living, and what better role model than eco-gran Gay Cossins, who grows her own fruit and veg, concocts make-up and medicines, and swims daily in her rainwater pool. She's insulated her home so well she pays just £86 a year for gas and electricity, and her weekly shop costs £10.

All over Britain, there are more and more of these Good Lifers. In fact, I'm about to head north to thin out my lettuce and check on my tomatoes. Mind you, I'm going on the train so they won't be quite as cheap as Gay's.

Love all? I think not ...

I tried to watch the BBC's Wimbledon coverage but recoiled in horror and swiftly reached for the remote. Not Murray's pitiful showing against Nadal, but the ghastly appearance of the team in the commentary box.

The two Johns, McEnroe and Lloyd, have hardly a full head of hair between them. And all the sexual charisma they exhibited as professional players has vanished with middle age. Now it's more like Steptoe and son. And then there was Sue Barker's eye make-up (black liner with little flicks), frumpy frocks and helmet hair, which reminded me of Hyacinth Bouquet.

Thank God the Williams sisters can be relied on to look glamorous at all times.

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