I’M not a technophobe – really, I’m not.

When I worked for the BBC I used to lecture to young broadcast journalists, and I would tell them: “Adapt or die”. Progress, technical advancement, is inevitable. Go with it, don’t rail against it.

BUT... I draw the line at the spread of a technical “disease” they call QR codes. For those who don’t know, they are those little squares of patterned black ink that seem to be appearing everywhere these days.

To give them their full name, they are Quick Response Codes. You scan them with your smart phone and they whizz you online to whatever information you want (or maybe don’t want).

I get it – they can be useful, a shortcut to whatever. But sometimes I don’t want a short cut.

One of the joys of sitting in a restaurant is poring over the menu; you know the cardboard one you hold in your hand. A well written, descriptive menu can feel like a piece of literature, tantalising your taste buds.

But no, now I need to get out my phone, scan the code and try to make sense of the menu on a small screen I can barely read.

In some pubs now I can’t go to the bar and have a chat with the bartender. No, you order your drinks at your table with one of those wretched codes.

The nonsense of it all was taken to a whole new level this week when I stayed at a budget hotel (one of those chains). There was no phone in the room, so no chance of ringing reception or speaking to a human being.

The problem is we had run out of loo paper. And guess what? We had to scan a QR code to order some more! I fear we are rapidly losing the ability to speak to anyone.

I’ve read that QR codes can also be a danger when it comes to having your data stolen.  They’ve even got a name for it – “quishing”.

Excuse me while I scan a QR code for a full definition of “quishing”.