IT HAS become a common sight in theatres and cinemas - little pools of light in the darkness, distracting everyone around them.

These pools of light are, of course, from mobile phones. They belong to people who can’t bear to switch off.

I despair of what people have become. Grown adults with the attention span of a goldfish, who can’t be without their mobiles for two hours.

The other night I was at a concert and found myself distracted by someone in front of me rummaging for her phone, then turning it on, trying to find the camera, then making several clumsy attempts at photographing the singer on stage. She spent so long doing all this, she missed an entire song. The light from her phone glared out, she clearly had no regard for anyone around her, or any respect for the artist she’d presumably paid to see.

And the photos she took were rubbish - I know this because, frustratingly, I couldn’t avoid them, as she waved her phone around in front of me. I kept willing her to put the wretched thing away, but she continued to take terrible, blurred photos and show them to the person next to her, completely ignoring chunks of the concert. Then I noticed someone two rows down scrolling through social media on her phone.

These weren’t teenagers - they were middle-aged women. And I’m sorry, but their manners were appalling. Within an audience there’s an unspoken etiquette that you should be aware of those around you. You’re not the only person in the auditorium. But there’s something about a mobile phone that locks people into another world, making them blissfully unaware of anyone else around them.

York Press:

Time to switch off: Do we really need to photograph every moment, asks Emma Clayton? Photo: Pixabay

I know it’s commonplace to film concerts now, and I’ve nothing against the occasional bit of filming or photo, but some audience members have their phones out the whole time. People have become so obsessed with documenting the moment that they end up missing it.

The world we live in has become what sci-fi B-movies predicted half a century ago: people de-humanised and enslaved by their gadgets.

We just can’t switch off, not even on holiday. A survey of 1,000 adults has revealed the average Brit travels with at least three digital gadgets in their luggage. And one in five, according to the UK Gadget Usage Report (what else?), takes at least five items of tech on holiday - most commonly smart phones, iPads or tablets, Kindles and laptops. Battery packs are also becoming a holiday must-have.

I own up to taking my phone on holiday, but I use it as little as possible while I’m away. For me, a holiday is about ‘logging off’ from everyday life. I like to read on hols, but I don’t use Kindles because I love books.

Some parents would argue that they take gadgets on holiday to keep the children occupied, but surely youngsters spend enough time in front of screens. Shouldn’t a family vacation be about stepping away from the tablet and spending time together?

So many holiday snaps are posted on to Facebook that I wonder how much of this time people spend without a phone in their hand. And let’s face it, most people’s holiday pictures are pretty dull to everyone else. The same goes for the tedious photos that daft woman was taking at the concert the other night.

Life is what happens when you’re busy on your phone.