In times of recession, more Shropshire people are opting for hte ultimate night in, using new technology to bring their social lives into their living rooms.

I’m in with the in-crowd. The staying-in crowd, that is.

Haven’t you heard – staying in is the new going out, and the economic downturn means we will be metaphorically washing our hair for the foreseeable future.

The good news is that there’s no longer any need to go out: the ultimate night in means we can now do all the things we once did out in public, do all the socialising we used to do, but on the cheap without leaving our front doors.

Our living rooms are now our pubs (thank you cheap takeaway booze), our discos and sports fields (thank you Nintendo Wii), our cinemas (DVD hire is up and giant widescreen TVs coming down in price) and high streets (all hail the internet shopping revolution).

In times of recession, more Shropshire people are opting for the ultimate night in, and proof that I am not alone comes with reports that in the face the downturn one of the only areas we are spending extra is in home entertainment and home comforts.

The rise and rise of the in-crowd, a new breed of enforced social hermits, can be found in fresh television viewing figures which show that the average person is glued to his flat screen for an average of one hour extra a week compared with the previous year. Interactive reality television has turned into a participation sport with in-house socialising potential.

More folk are prepared to fork out on pay-TV channels, with optional extras of fast broadband and phone deals.

This means we can download our social lives for the ultimate night in. So we can watch films online, play games online and talk to one another, if we have to, through Facebook and other social networking sites.

At the same time, we are still nipping down to the DVD shop and for little treats are splashing out on cheap takeaways to consume in front of the telly.

Paul Henley, owner of Barkers Movie Magic and DVD hire and general store in Shifnal, is just one who has seen the effects of the new in-crowd.

“People do seem to be hiring more DVDs and at the same they are taking home beer and wine. They are stopping in, in the warm, and not spending a fortune at the pub.”

And he has noticed that it’s not just boring middle age folk doing the staying in. It’s kids and pensioners too.

Many chip shops and home delivery pizza services have reported doing a roaring trade. And our flash platinum Amex cards may have been blocked by the bank, but should we fancy something a little more flamboyant on our plates than chips a la pizza we need no longer venture to the local fine dinery.

Television programmes such as Gordon Ramsay’s Cook-along mean we are all there with our pinnies and pans, knocking out linguine alle vongole with the louche confidence we used to reserve for adding water to a Cup-a-Soup.

After dinner entertainment for the ultimate night? Computer games are booming with high street stores such as Games Workshop recently posting big profits and certainly more people are buying Nintendo Wiis, a machine that has brought a world of leisure into our living rooms.

Playing golf with a Wii Stick is certainly cheaper than joining the local golf club, and you don’t necessarily have to fork out money on fancy action slacks that make you look like Rupert Bear.

The national uniform for the in-crowd speaks for itself if reports of booming sales of loungewear are to be believed.

Yet entertainment for the in-crowd need not be all digital baloney. Sales of old-fashioned board games have rocketed in times of recession.

It would seem that Monopoly has temporarily satisfied the dual human desires of spending cash and moving to big houses when folk don’t have the means to do either.

In theory, all this staying and socialising in the living room should be good for the family unit. Where once we might have been glad to escape the constant callings from the granny annexe by fleeing to the safety of the pub, now we are being forced to duet in karaoke sessions with the old girl on the Wii.

And, thanks to our living room social lives, we are finding that our kids are our new best mates.

But if we start to feel claustrophobic with our new hermit status, thanks to the wizardry of the world wide web the in-crowd can go out without going out. If we want to meet someone new we can do it as part of the big night in: a circle of virtual mates is only a computer click away.

Because millions of us are joining online virtual worlds such as Second Life which give us the opportunity to create interesting alter-egos and go gallivanting around virtual discos, spending virtual money.

But just what will a nation of hairdressers, prone to breaking the ice with open questions about our social lives, say about all this? Will they have anything to talk about?

As they chop into what hair we have left amid recession worries, will they hit us with the new hairdressing gambit: “Are you staying in tonight, sir?”