ADDICTION to smart phones and social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook is crushing our creativity and destroying our ability to think for ourselves, Kezia Dugdale has insisted.

The former Scottish Labour leader railed against those who live their lives online, insisting: “Not only is that a complete and utter waste of instantly forgettable white noise, it’s making us a lazy and ugly race.”

She admitted she was previously guilty of “living a pixelated life and ignoring the real one in front of me” but realised the effect this was having when she appeared on I’m a Celebrity.

Participants on the reality TV show have all electronic gadgets removed from their possession after they arrive in the Australian jungle.

Writing in the Edinburgh Evening News, Ms Dugdale said: “I was forced to go cold turkey and after the first 48 hours of wondering what do with my thumbs, I didn’t miss it.

“We are wasting our lives with our heads in our phones. A technology designed to enable us is crushing our creativity, free thinking and general nous.

“What’s worse is that it’s legitimising the behaviour of those who rule over us. People increasingly less willing to compromise or listen to an alternative view.

"In a world of us versus them, I’ll chose the gang that isn’t obsessed with its battery life over its actual life.”

She said a recent report from Ofcom, the telecommunications regulator, had found that the nearly 80 per cent of people who now own a smartphone are checking it on average every 12 minutes.

The MSP said this addiction was making people forget how to do things for themselves.

Meanwhile, online we “follow people who we think like us and revel in our own righteousness by retweeting and perpetuating our own beliefs” – or else rage at those with different opinions.