WE live in the age of what has become known as social media.

For millions of people, the mobile telephone is a treasured, indispensable possession and the world revolves around it. We talk on it, text on it, tweet on it, bank on it, and shop on it.

We are in the midst of a communication revolution and, somewhere along the way, manners and respect have been undermined.

The appearance of comedian Michael McIntyre at Darlington Civic Theatre this week was an event which generated huge interest. Tickets for the Civic Theatre were sold out in record time.

It is, therefore, a shame that his performance – aimed at testing material for his forthcoming arena tour – should be marred by a member of the audience using her mobile phone.

When challenged by the comedian, the woman – seated in the front row – insisted she had every right to continue her conversation with a relative.

It was at that point that McIntyre walked off with an instruction to security to "sort it out".

He returned a few minutes later, apologised, and continued his show.

There are those wo take the view that, as one of the world's highest-paid comedians, McIntyre should have kept his cool but, in our view, he was right to leave the stage.

It is the height of ignorance to use a mobile telephone during a theatre performance and to spoil the experience, not only for the performer but the rest of the audience.

Surely it is not too much to ask people to turn off their phones for a couple of hours and take a break from the social media frenzy.