Texting And Driving Synthesis Essay
As young people living in a world with advancing technology, we need to be cognizant of the effect that technology has on us and our everyday lives. Everyone should be aware that technology- especially our phone, is distracting, and driving while distracted is dangerous.
Texting while driving is hazardous and puts not only you, but the people around you in danger. In the US, people should be more informed about the effects of using cellphones while driving as it causes 26% of car crashes in America. Using cell phones while driving cause over 10% of fatal crashes with teen drivers (Document F). Teens should not assume that they are invincible because they are young, so we have to be careful about the distraction that phones cause. Looking at …show more content…
a phone causes you to be distracted for 400% more time than usual. Four hundred percent is a huge change in focus, and that difference could be the difference between missing the pedestrian and hitting them.
Driving while distracted can make the driver miss important information, such as where the divide is on the road. Through the experiments that we did in class, we found that the class average for time distracted while reading a text was roughly 3.57 seconds. The average time distracted in the US is 5 seconds. Using computational reasoning, we found that if you are distracted for 3.57 seconds and traveling at a constant velocity of 60 m/s, you would travel 214.2 meters (Source F). That is almost as long as two football fields (240 yards). In those five seconds, anything can happen. The car could move across the dividers, crash, hit a pedestrian, or nothing could happen at all. Driving a car combines different combinations of complex motion. Through analyzing the data our class collected, we have found the combination of being distracted, reacting, and braking can be the difference between life and death. For Rachel Gannon, it was the difference between her going to jail and having a normal teenage life. Gannon hit a car while distracted by her phone, which killed a woman and injured the woman’s granddaughter (Source B). Driving while distracted made a huge difference in the life of Gannon, as well as Reggie Shaw, another teenager who hit a car while distracted.
Shaw hit a car while using his phone, causing the two men in the car to die (Source A).
During the time he was distracted, his prefrontal cortex was trying to focus on driving, while the reptile parts of his brain were calling his attention to the phone. Phones, and a need for social connection, can cause the brain to “go to war with itself”(Source A). As technology progresses, the need to be socially connected is increasing along with it. People in my generation are more connected than any generation before them, and as a result of that we continue to become more attached to our phones. When we are driving and our phones buzz or ring, we feel the immediate need to find out what the buzz/ring was for. The primitive parts of the brain urge you to pick up the phone, and when the information displayed is important, it gives you a small dose of dopamine. Dr. Greenfield says that a phone “is in a sense a narcotic.” which means a phone can have addictive properties (Source A). For some people, the noise that their phone makes is as distracting as driving while under the influence. Texting while driving causes 26% of car crashes in America while drinking under the influence causes 31% (Source H). There is only a four percent difference between the two different distractions. Anything can have an affect on a driver, and how they drive, but texting while driving or driving under the influence are self-inflicted factors. Driving while focused is hard enough, but adding another factor
such as texting, causes the brain to become distracted and to miss key information. Texting while driving can not only hurt you, but also hurt the people around you. I’m aware of the cost that texting while driving can have. The reasons and facts stated above are enough to stop me from texting while driving, and I hope that through learning this, other kids my age will feel the same.
Texting while driving is hazardous and puts not only you, but the people around you in danger. In the US, people should be more informed about the effects of using cellphones while driving as it causes 26% of car crashes in America. Using cell phones while driving cause over 10% of fatal crashes with teen drivers (Document F). Teens should not assume that they are invincible because they are young, so we have to be careful about the distraction that phones cause. Looking at …show more content…
a phone causes you to be distracted for 400% more time than usual. Four hundred percent is a huge change in focus, and that difference could be the difference between missing the pedestrian and hitting them.
Driving while distracted can make the driver miss important information, such as where the divide is on the road. Through the experiments that we did in class, we found that the class average for time distracted while reading a text was roughly 3.57 seconds. The average time distracted in the US is 5 seconds. Using computational reasoning, we found that if you are distracted for 3.57 seconds and traveling at a constant velocity of 60 m/s, you would travel 214.2 meters (Source F). That is almost as long as two football fields (240 yards). In those five seconds, anything can happen. The car could move across the dividers, crash, hit a pedestrian, or nothing could happen at all. Driving a car combines different combinations of complex motion. Through analyzing the data our class collected, we have found the combination of being distracted, reacting, and braking can be the difference between life and death. For Rachel Gannon, it was the difference between her going to jail and having a normal teenage life. Gannon hit a car while distracted by her phone, which killed a woman and injured the woman’s granddaughter (Source B). Driving while distracted made a huge difference in the life of Gannon, as well as Reggie Shaw, another teenager who hit a car while distracted.
Shaw hit a car while using his phone, causing the two men in the car to die (Source A).
During the time he was distracted, his prefrontal cortex was trying to focus on driving, while the reptile parts of his brain were calling his attention to the phone. Phones, and a need for social connection, can cause the brain to “go to war with itself”(Source A). As technology progresses, the need to be socially connected is increasing along with it. People in my generation are more connected than any generation before them, and as a result of that we continue to become more attached to our phones. When we are driving and our phones buzz or ring, we feel the immediate need to find out what the buzz/ring was for. The primitive parts of the brain urge you to pick up the phone, and when the information displayed is important, it gives you a small dose of dopamine. Dr. Greenfield says that a phone “is in a sense a narcotic.” which means a phone can have addictive properties (Source A). For some people, the noise that their phone makes is as distracting as driving while under the influence. Texting while driving causes 26% of car crashes in America while drinking under the influence causes 31% (Source H). There is only a four percent difference between the two different distractions. Anything can have an affect on a driver, and how they drive, but texting while driving or driving under the influence are self-inflicted factors. Driving while focused is hard enough, but adding another factor
such as texting, causes the brain to become distracted and to miss key information. Texting while driving can not only hurt you, but also hurt the people around you. I’m aware of the cost that texting while driving can have. The reasons and facts stated above are enough to stop me from texting while driving, and I hope that through learning this, other kids my age will feel the same.