How Do You Live Your Digital Life?

Politicians, pop stars, fashion icons - five women share the apps, hi-tech kit and sites that shape their lives.

Jameela Jamil
Jameela Jamil
(Image credit: Kris Atomic)

Politicians, pop stars, fashion icons - five women share the apps, hi-tech kit and sites that shape their lives.

Jameela Jamil, 28, is a BBC Radio 1 presenterHoly Moly and Buzzfeed are my bookmarked websites. It’s my job to live and breathe pop culture so I read the showbiz sites on my way to the studio. The last text I sent was to my boyfriend. It was a picture of a cat wearing a dress. I don’t understand couples that tweet each other. I think, but you’re sitting right next to him?!

Never tweet about Beyonce or Miley. Whatever you say, good or bad, about a celebrity with super-fans and you will feel the onslaught. ‘The best thing to hold on to in life is each other.’ I can’t bear those philosophical verses people post on Facebook. I use my profile as a photographic diary that I can look back on.

I couldn’t live without iTunes. I’m more likely to leave the house without my pants than without my battered iPod and a pair of Beats by Dre to listen to it. I quite enjoy leaving my phone at home on the other hand.

Netflix is a real game-changer. I’m obsessed with Orange is the New Black, Modern Family and anything starring comedian Whitney Cummings.

Best app: 1 Second Everyday. You record a one-second video of yourself each day and end up with a montage of your life

Texts sent per day: 100. I hate talking on the phone.

Facebook friends: 758, but I regularly cull.

Instagram loves: Suki Waterhouse for life envy and Gizzi Erskine for food porn.

Twitter followers: 167k

Follow Jameela Jamil on Twitter

Susie Bubble, 30, is a blogger and founder of Stylebubble.co.uk

I have two Samsung Galaxy Note 3 phones in case one runs out of battery. It’s a bit renegade because most people use iPhones but I prefer the slightly larger screen. It’s a cross between a phone and a tablet so you look a bit daft talking on it but it’s great for editing pictures from the catwalk shows.

That means two screensavers. One is a fashion image by photographer Deborah Turbeville, the other is some girlie roses.

Never go to Fashion Week with less than two bags. I carry my Macbook Air, Canon 5D Mark 3 camera, lenses and my mobiles. That means I need a large leather tote and a clutch to transport it all.

Flipagram is my latest obsession. It’s an app that enables you to build photos into a video montage to music then share the 15-second video on Instagram. How did people travel before smart phones? Uber and Hailo taxi apps are a life-safer for getting around during Fashion Week.

Nike + Fuel Band changed the way I exercise. You wear the band when running and it hooks up to the Nike + app to track your mileage, speed and calories burned.

Instagram followers: 146k

Famous follower: Stephen Fry

Favourite app: Shazam. It listens to a piece of music then calculates the song title and artist so you can download it.

Bookmarked websites: The Business of Fashion, Guardian, New York Times

Must follow: Fashion editor at The Independent, Alexander Fury

Follow Susie Bubble on Twitter

Chloe Howl, 19, singer/songwriter

Citymapper is the app that changed my life. I’m forever getting lost trying to follow the blue dot on Google Maps. Citymapper shows you the quickest, cheapest route in any city, from Barcelona to New York. “Hi, it’s Chloe. I’m not here. Leave a message” Not the most original mobile voicemail message, but it works for me.

Hashtags are taking over the world. I’m not sure how I got through a bus journey before Twitter. I check it 30 times a day.

I’m too self-conscious for Skype and FaceTime. Seeing your little face in a box in the corner of the screen? Too weird. I prefer picking up the phone to talk to friends and family when I’m touring.

People shouldn’t blast their insecurities on Twitter. You should save that for conversations with your best friends, not thousands of strangers.

YouTube is the secret to discovering new music. Then I use SoundCloud to share new music with people.

Twitter followers: 18.2k

Most retweets: Close to 500 for a picture of a pug dressed as a wrecking ball. Google it. The Internet loves animals in fancy dress.

Last online purchase: A new festival wardrobe from ASOS and Topshop. I buy all my makeup online too.

iTunes library: 3,000 tracks on my Macbook Pro.

Tech-phobia: I’m still not entirely sure what iCloud is all about.

Follow Chloe Howl on Twitter

Joanna Shields, 52, Chair of Tech City UK and digital advisor to the Prime Minister

Skype keeps me close to loved ones. I keep it open constantly on my Macbook Air, iPhone and iPad. I’ve lived in the UK for 15 years so I Skype or Ping my mother back home in Pennsylvania first thing every morning – you lose all sense of vanity seeing your morning face in the corner of the screen.

Twitter leads to endless new discoveries. I worked at Facebook (as European Vice President) for years so I feel slightly disloyal using Twitter but I get lost on there for hours, one tweet or opinion linking to another, infinitely.

Nobody wants to know what I’m having for lunch. I only tweet if it’s important, not superfluous accounts of my day-to-day life.

I’m obsessed with opinion-sharing app, State. It’s a curation of public opinions. But if I’m communicating with my 15-year-old son, the only place I can pin him down is on Snapchat, where content disappears in seconds. I buy most books twice. Once for the Kindle to read on-the-go and once to keep on my bookshelf because I like the best of both worlds.

Car sat navs are so dated. I much prefer using Google Maps on the iPhone or a brilliant navigation app called Waze.

Number of apps: Too many. I download them and only use them once.

Last online purchase: I went crazy in the Net-a-porter and Matches sales. I fill up my cart with a million things then go back to do an edit. I never shop in stores.

Email: Gmail. I was working at Google when it launched and it has good junk filters.

Tweets sent: 133

Last Facebook status: ‘Thank you!’ For all my birthday messages.

Follow Joanna Shields on Twitter

Gloria de Piero, 41, is a Labour MP for Ashfield and shadow minister for women and equalities.

You can never soak up too much news. I wake up to BBC Radio 4, which I stream via the TuneIn Radio app, and I follow all the political journalists and newspapers on Twitter.

I’m partial to a guilty scroll of Mail Online’s right-hand column. We all are, right?

My Blackberry is surgically attached to my palm. This job isn’t desk-bound so I rely on it for everything and I prefer the keyboard on a Blackberry to that of an iPhone, especially as I like to reply to all emails from constituents personally. Apple TV is genius. I use it to stream Netflix, watch TOWIE and series-link Coronation Street.

I’ve never played Candy Crush. My sister-in-law is addicted so I don’t think I should start. I’d like to see more women in the gaming industry because there aren’t enough games designed for a female market.

Last thing at night, I steal my husband’s iPad. I cram-read all the news stories I didn’t get chance to read in the day.

Emails received per day: 250 from constituents and Party colleagues

Facebook friends: 5,000. I use it to stay in touch with my constituency.

Most clicked: Trip Advisor, to book my last holiday to LA. And no, I didn’t switch off the Blackberry.

Famous follower: Dermot O’Leary (@radioleary) Now I feel pressure to tweet him something witty and fabulous. Strangest tweet: My old friend from GMTV Penny Smith tweets me about meeting up and I think, but you have my mobile number?!

Follow Gloria de Piero on Twitter

Which apps and sites can't you live without? Let us know in the comment box below...

Tracy Ramsden