How reliant are you on technology today? Tesse Akpeki shares her experience of turmoil as her tech-dependency took a turn for the worse.

The notion of life’s bare necessities was immortalised in “The Jungle Book” more than four decades ago. To mark the forthcoming release of the film on Blue Ray, Disney carried out a survey to find out Bare Necessities of modern day life. Included in the top 20 were high-speed internet connection (ranked number one), cuddles came in at number three, a trustworthy best friend ranked at four and a smart phone weighed in at 19.

Shortly after, I realised all of these bare necessities in one go as my Galaxy Samsung S3 and iPad were stolen. In one sweep I lost over £1,300 of kit and two bare necessities... The thief would probably describe the haul as a good day at the office.

Reflecting on why this experience had so impacted on me, I realised I have become so wired - the ability to access the world wide web anywhere I go, breaking news on the go, feedback from clients, contact with family, my important notes, my diary, to name a few, are critical. Their loss made me feel violated, vulnerable, afraid and abused.

Unexpectedly my virtual world was shattered, accompanied by feelings of helplessness and blame. I kept reliving that experience with different scenarios. ‘If only I had...’

Step in another bare necessity - cuddles, accompanied by the kindness of strangers. A number of people taking sympathy with my predicament sat with me until the police arrived, gave me the privacy to give a statement and accompanied me to the place where I would feel safe again. Others lent me their phones to make essential calls to let people know what had happened and tell them I was safe. I was able to post updates to Twitter and Facebook, and friends and family stepped in to reassure, comfort and encourage.

In practical terms, I had backed everything up to the Cloud so I was able to recover almost all my data including photographs, and I was up and running in a few days. Fortunately, the ‘Where is my iphone app’ helped me to remotely wipe out all my data as well as put another lock on my iPad for extra security. I was not, however, insured.

All in all this experience left me a little scathed, and also much wiser. And my sorely felt lesson can be a lesson to us all. Not only does it serve as a lesson about the reliance on the virtual world, but also as a warning over data security.  The Information Commissioners' Office would feel little sympathy had my devices contained any sensitive information, which could have resulted in a breach of confidentiality.

So, some quetions: What devices, habits, or rituals do you use to sustain or support yourself? What is your connection with gadgets or electronic tools? Electronic/digital applications can be brilliant to build our communities, our organisations, and our boards. How can we protect ourselves so that our gadgets don’t rule our lives or shape an addiction?

I confess until this occurrence, I had not realised just how dependent I had become on my digital tools and connections. While I leave the experience financially poorer, I also leave a bit smarter; somehow I think I have achieved a win of sorts and connected again to inner Baloo!