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Increase The Driving Age To 18 Essay

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The question has been asked," Should Virginia increase its legal driving age to 18, up from age 16?" As a teenager having many friends whose ages fall within the stated age range and because I am well aware of how my peers act, including myself, I totally agree that the legal age for driving should be increased to age 18. I believe that the typical teenager is not mature or responsible enough to handle the demands of safe and defensive driving. My grandmother and her friends often brag about having their licenses when they were 16 and while in the 10th grade. Then, as my mother has told me, other than walking, driving was the only way to travel in her small town. Driving was viewed as a crossover to maturity, a prerequisite of adulthood …show more content…

Driving at age 16 is no longer considered a passage to getting away from home, meeting and communicating with others. Driving is now like a dinosaur and social media is the newly found creature creating and demanding far too much attention. With that being said, I further my position that all states should impose a driving restriction until age 18 simply due to the preoccupation that today's teenagers have. Truly social media and is related technology have already proven to interfere with safe driving. Teenagers are attached to cell phones like babies attach to their marsupial mothers. The use of cell phones presents itself as a hazard while driving and we all know that teenagers are "always" on their phones regardless of where they are or what they are doing. The practice of cell phone use while driving has killed many and will continue to do so until old habits die out. Indeed, a 16 year old teenager is more preoccupied with his or her phone more than anything in the world; this attachment interferes with their daily functioning within the home, at school, at church and unfortunately, even while driving. Statistics show that most teenage driving offenses are now due to cell phone use more so than alcohol and illicit drug use The argument that counters my outlook is that the age of 16 has always been the legal driving

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