What gets me in this video is that it was a simple "yeah" that caused a family to be one less; a routine "lol" that distracted someone so much that they took the life of an innocent person. I blame the fast-paced world of technology. It's a time when you can get directions sent to you on your phone or easily communicate with someone miles and miles away from you. Sometimes, this can be beneficial. Oftentimes, this leads to disaster. But what compels us to put our lives in danger just so that we can open a text? Maybe it's the fact that American life has become so fast-paced. We are constantly being pushed to finish first.
With all this new technology, we can multitask in so many other ways with our phones that will allow us to be faster. Some people engage in conversation while texting. Students navigate through crowded halls while texting. People, especially teenagers, believe that since it is so easy to multitask with texting in these ways, it can't be much harder in a car. That's where they have it wrong. When engaging in conversation, you don't need your hands- they are free to text. When walking through the halls at school, you don't need your hands- they are free to text. When driving a car on any road, it is essential that you use your hands- they are not free to text.
A recent article in National Geographic called 'Teenage Brains' brings up an interesting fact:
"Teens take more risks not because they don't understand the dangers but because they weigh risk versus reward differently: In situations where risk can get them something they want, they value the reward more heavily than adults do."
Texting while driving is becoming a real issue- people are losing their lives. But is this taking a risk that will get these teens something they want? Or is it a careless example of multitasking?
I know that sometimes when I go somewhere with my mom I tell her to drive so that I can continue my texting conversations. In those moments, knowing that I will be away from the conversation for some amount of time bothers me. I don't want to miss out. I don't want to end the conversation or even delay it. In reality, no problems come out of not texting someone back for 15 minutes. Teens don't see this though.
ReplyDeleteI think that teens text while they drive simply because they don't think that anything could go wrong. Most teens don't expect to die or get seriously injured when they step into a car because they haven't quite grasped at the idea yet. Death is too far away in the future to worry about. It's that idea that, "I never thought it would happen to me." People don't usually expect for the worse to happen so they think they can take those small text message risks while driving.
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