How texting and driving is campaigned and portrayed in the
media, does it actually help stop texting and driving? Can texting and driving be reduced, if not
stopped?
After
doing some research I have found that the texting and driving campaign is
failing and quite miserably if I do say so myself. A survey done by AT&T showed that," 47%
of teenagers admitted to texting while driving and 75% said that their friends
texted and drove."1 Within that
same survey it was also found that 89% of teens felt as though they had to
answer a text within that minute. It is
unfortunate that in today's world of social media and texting that people
cannot wait to text and drive. However, I have to admit I would be lying if I
said that I haven't sent a text or looked at my phone while I was driving. It has become part of our culture now and it
is causing a lot of accidents and even worse, a lot of deaths. A big issue with the current campaign is that
they keep saying the same facts and telling the same tragic stories of kids who
have life altering disabilities because of a texting and driving accident and it's
not getting through to kids. As bad as
all of the stats and how gruesome the injuries are, kids are still continuing
to text and drive.
The way
the media is portraying texting and driving is how they should be, but in
today's world everyone is addicted to their phones making it impossible for
people not to look at their phone at some point while driving. One big thing that happens to me when I drive
is that I have my phone plugged in to my car playing music and whenever I
change a song, if I notice I have a text message, I feel obligated to at least
look at what the person sent to me. Another
instance I use my phone while driving is for GPS. Just recently, New Hampshire passed a law
that any use of a cell phone while driving is a finable offense is a step in
the right direction to try to stop texting in driving. However, cops have a hard time pulling people
over for texting and driving because so many people put their phones in their
laps. Unfortunately, I do not believe
that texting and driving can be stopped because of how many people are
constantly in contact with one another.
Another reason is that it is very hard to get pulled over for texting
and driving because of how easy it is to hide while driving. In addition, there are a lot of people who
use their phones for music and GPS.
Especially with GPS, people are looking at their phones very often because they do not know where to go and this
can lead to accidents.
On the
bright side, I do believe that texting and driving can be reduced. It is going to take an effort from each
individual person to commit to not texting and driving. One can argue that making stricter laws is
going to stop people and it may stop a few people. What would really change the game would be if
everyone every time driving, tried to use their phone just a little less. Slowly and surely it would ideally getting
down to using one's phone in emergency situations or if they are lost and do
not know where to go. No matter what
people are going to use their phones driving in today's world. At this point it is so engrained in our
culture that we cannot stop using our phones, so instead we must adapt to using
our phones less while driving.
1. "Saftey 1st Drivers Ed" http://www.safety1stdriversed.com/2013/08/do-anti-texting-campaigns-really-work/. 2012.
10/15/2015
