WHAT is wrong with people these days when it comes to their mobile phones?

Not only must they never be more than five inches away from them at all times but, when they’re talking on them, they switch to “loudhailer” and have conversations that question the need for a phone at all. They could just as easily stand outside and shout to the person they want.

Sometimes, of course, phone use is not just mildly irritating but downright dangerous. The latest involved a woman in Lincolnshire who hit and killed a seven year-old boy while she was speaking on her mobile.

The last call she made before ploughing into him was one of seven calls she made during the short journey.

And the even more worrying current trend is that of live streaming from your phone as you drive. In case, like me, you hadn’t heard of this, it happens when people live stream footage of themselves online using social media like Facebook.

If you saw this on TV last week you could easily see drivers distracted and talking into their phones on the dashboard, engaging with the camera rather than the road.

Unsurprisingly, tests showed that driving responses were much reduced. In any case, it’s a breach of all the laws surrounding mobile phone use in cars.

What I really cannot understand – and this is partly generational – is the need to be so needy about your phone when, really, you’ve not got much to say. There’s little that cannot wait until you can either pull into a safe area to make a call or wait until later.

On the simplest level, most people talking on mobiles suddenly start exercising their voice-box and belting out their side of the conversation rather than finding somewhere more private and keeping the call short anyway.

I really don’t want to know whether your boyfriend is being mean to you, what you’ve got to get from the supermarket for tea or whether the dog is going to the vet’s next Friday.

Phones were always meant to improve communication but now they’re extensions of our personality and a way to share our lives with others, whether they like it or not.

Remember that old advertising slogan for phone use “It’s good to talk”? Well, I’d just like to qualify that and say: not all the time, not in public and, please, just not so loudly.