Essay on To Text or Not to Text?

Although cellphone use can provide drivers with various benefits, such as optimized commute time, navigation, and entertainment, the risks far outweigh any perceived advantages. Acts of multitasking, such as texting while driving, divides a person’s attention (Konig et al., 2005). This places substantial demand on a person’s restricted cognitive resources (Konig et al., 2005). For example, 14% of all American adults say they’ve physically bumped into another person or an object because talking or texting on their phone distracted them (Madden & Rainie, 2010). This shows that being engrossed by ones cellphone can affect even automatic processes like walking. As

We all are probably aware that texting and talking on the phone is a distraction to all drivers and can be very dangerous. Also, we all know there are many other distractions besides texting and driving, and any type of technology can cause a driver to be distracted. Forty-one percent of all drivers use their hands to text in the car while driving, according to Greg Gardner (52). It can cause people to forget about pedestrians or their surrounding areas. People who are distracted often aren’t focused and don’t have both hands on the wheel. According to Bryan Wilson, people may say that cell phones are easy to be pointed out as a problem, but statistics show the damage cell phones can do to a person while they are driving (6). According to Simon Usborne, time spent not looking at the road while talking on the phone is 15% of the time (68). Also, while texting and driving the time spent not looking at the road is 30% of the time (Usborne 69). As technology improves more and more people may feel the need to use their cell phones while driving. According to Melissa Healy, cell phone use can be as dangerous as drunk driving (42). Tests should be done to compare the various ways of sober people under the influence driving also to compare the impact of texting and driving. This would give us a better understanding of just how dangerous driving and being on our phone really is.

In the article, “Dead Girl’s Parents Warn Students to Buckle Up and Stop Texting,” shows that texting while driving is hazardous and very real when Alex Brown, age 17, died due to result of texting while driving while not wearing a seatbelt. The parents of Alex Brown, Johhny Mac and Jeanne Brown, appeared in front of an audience of hundreds of Clyde middle and high school students, to educate young people about Alex’s accident and how easily it could have been prevented. Texting while driving impacts the lives of those around you. A single distraction while driving, as small and simple it may seem such as texting, can lead to the death of loved ones.

There are both cognitive and physical factors that contribute to accidents when drivers talk on their cell phones and/or text behind the wheel. The primary cognitive factor is that an individual’s attention is divided when he or she is paying attention to more than one thing at a time (Goldstein, 2011). For example, a driver’s attention is on the road and perhaps how far the car ahead of him/her is, but at the same time is also trying to read a text message on a cellular device. This divided attention reduces the reaction speed and driving performance of the driver because there are not as many cognitive resources available to focus his/her attention on the most important thing: driving. When the driver is processing

In 2009 1.56 trillion text messages were sent and although we can’t find out how many of those were typed or received in a car, we would say most of them were. The NSC says texting is involved in at least 100,000 crashes per year. Twenty one percent of car crashes, 1.2 million, involve talking on the phone even with hands free devices. Distracted driving in 2009 led to half a million injured and 5,500 killed, says the Department of Transportation. These facts led to the conclusion that the brain can not perform two tasks at once. It switches quickly between the two, the switch happens so fast that you believe you are multitasking and paying attention but you really are just missing chunks of important information.

Distracted driving is becoming the one of the highest causes of fatal accidents in youth. People are becoming more and more dependent on their mobile phones due to the economic and social benefits they provide. With advancement of technology and the more widespread use of smartphones distracted driving is become more dangerous than driving impaired. Driving itself needs full focus and attention with new technologies more focused on making mobile phones more easily compatible with cars it has become increasingly difficult to eliminate the problem cell phones and mobile phones cause when linked to each other. Studies show those using mobile devices while driving are 4-6 times more likely to get into a accident, With the risk so high many cell phone use while driving has been banned in many different countries around the world(fatal distractions). The second alternative is hands-free devices allowing drivers to accept calls, compile and send text messages with ought the use of hands, but using a mobile phone whether it be hands-free or not still hinders performance and deviates the focus of the driver. Car companies have recently countered this issue by implementing new technology in vehicles. For instance, cars now come equipped with built in blue tooth and exceptional pairing applications. This technology leads to inconclusive results of using a hand-held device.

In this age of multitasking, the use of cell phones is combined with assignments like cooking, driving, babysitting, walking, doing college assignments and even eating. Whereas the use of cell phones while doing some chores might be simply annoying, the consequence of using cell phone with driving can be fatal. Recent polls by the Pew Research Center and other researchers show that about fifty to ninety percent young Americans admit using their cell phone while driving. This includes about thirty six percent who said they texted or typed something whiles driving. (Lopresti-Goodman, Rivera, & Dressel, 2012). The practice of using phone particularly texting while driving has increased the number of distracted driving accidents. When the cell phone records of people involved

Seventy-five participants were evaluated in this study (p. 65). The participants were then divided into two age groups, novice and young adults (p. 65). All participants reported regular use of cell phones and texting during driving (p. 65). They were randomly assigned to conditions of texting while driving or having a cell phone conversation while driving (p. 65). During the simulated driving condition, there was an abundance of driving errors including; fluctuations in speed, lane deviance and lane change safety (p. 67). Both conditions of cell phone conversation and texting significantly affected driving performance in a negative way, between both of these conditions texting while driving was found to be the most detrimental (p. 67). Furthermore, these researchers concluded that age and experience made no difference when it came to accuracy of driving (p. 68). People often believe that due to their experience with texting and driving, it will have no negative effects on their driving. However, this study demonstrates otherwise. Experience with texting and driving provides no asset when it comes to distracted

Plentiful people claim that they can multitask while driving, but is that actually the case? People who are on their phones while driving have the same effect that other individuals have while driving with a .08% blood alcohol level. Driving intoxicated is well frowned upon, so why isn't texting and driving, especially if it is considered an equal or greater peril to driving intoxicated? Cell phones are one of the deadliest leading distractions on the road, “Safety Council found that people talking on cell phones or sending text messages caused more than one out of every four traffic accidents,” (Oregon travel experience). The reason why this is one of the main element for

“Driving a vehicle while texting is six times more dangerous than driving while intoxicated according to the National Highway Safety Administration.”(postdam.edu) Sending a text or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes away from the road for approximately 4.6 seconds, statistically when driving 55 MPH in 4.6 seconds otherwise

Studies conducted from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety shows that using a cell phone while driving significantly impairs a driver’s reaction time and triples the risk of being involved in a crash or near-crash, and text messaging increases crash risk by a multiple of 8 for all ages (NHTSA, 2009). Situational awareness is significantly decreased while engaging in distracted driving, and in turn inattention blindness is increased drastically creating a potentially deadly situation on the roads. A driver who is multitasking has less brain function available and thus literally fails to see or pay attention to things that are squarely in the field of vision (Texting and Driving, 2010). On the other hand there are those that may be able to multitask successfully though the challenge is

The problem that came with the popularization of the use of cell phones while driving solicits both ethical as well as legal questions. However, among the many arguments that have been experienced, the bottom-line is that every time a driver picks up the mobile phone to use in whichever form, the lives of those both in the car and outside the car are edged closer to danger than before.

“According to a UK Transport Research Laboratory study commissioned by the Royal Automobile Club Foundation, motorists sending text messages while driving are "significantly more impaired" than ones who drive drunk. The study showed texters' reaction times deteriorated by 35%, with a whopping 91% decrease in steering ability, while similar studies of drunk driving indicate reaction time diminishment of a relatively modest 12%. By

Texting while driving is 6 times as likely to get you involved in a collision on the road than drinking while driving. Even simple tasks draw a driver’s focus from the driving lane, which could be deadly. Using various forms of technology with hands on the wheel divides the driver's attention and could cause lethal collisions. Although to teens and young adult drivers, texting could be done safely if knowing when to text in the “right time” while driving, it distracts the driver’s attention from the driving lane and could cause fatal accidents and possible deadly injuries.

Today, texting while driving out numbers the amount of drunk driving according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Texting while driving is six times more likely to cause a wreck than drunk driving. You are 23 times more likely to wreck if you are texting. Texting while driving is equal to driving bind for 5 seconds each text. Out of the worlds’ population of over 7 billion, at any given moment all over the world, over 800,000 drivers are texting. Drivers think they can handle looking away for a second to reply, or read a message. By doing this you are decreasing your break reaction time by 18% (national). “The concentration needed for safe driving makes texting safely at the same time impossible” (Bratsis 70). According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, (C.D.C.)