Cell Phones Are Dangerous Essay Example for Free

Cell Ph matchlesss atomic number 18 Dangerous EssayHaving a booth sound in todays society has operate a regular part of life. Even I move over a carrell call back and Im re solely in ally not a big talker. Whats astonishing to me is kids seem to all have kiosk phones by the time they get into middle school. We rely on these communication devices for every ensureing at of our daily lives, whether for personal use or for work. To me we rely so heavily on the prison kiosk phone that it is becoming wicked. Think to a time when you were driving down the road and came up on a slower vehicle.They were swerving within their lane, couldnt keep a constant speed and reasonable seemed analogous they were completely put strike and not remunerative attention to the road and the seemingly easy task of driving. You wishing to get by the person save every time an opportunity to do so came into keep an eye on it would quickly disappear because the other driver would speed up or do or sothing to avert your opportunity. lastly you get your chance and go near the person. You look over in an attempt to quench your oddity and see the person is talk on their cell phone.It all makes sense now they argon paying more attention to the communion they have going on than to their driving. Driving is a dangerous occupation in itself, but when you add other distractions like talking and or text editioning on a cell phone, the outcomes can be anything but pleasant and lead to extended consequences. Drivers atomic number 18 far more distracted while talking on a cell phone than just talking to a passenger in the car. Recently my wife and I were going to a store. I have driven this despatch several times and knew exactly where to turn, but because of the distraction of talking, I missed my turn.This happened with just a passenger in the car. I can only assume if I had a cell phone up to my ear, or even using a hands free device that the outcome could have been worsened due to the higher level of distraction. A study at the University of Utah in 2008, led by Frank Drews, PhD, analyzed the driving performance of mostly young adult drivers paired with friends who served as conversation partners. In the cell-phone conversation condition, drivers conversation partners were at another location. In the in-car conversation condition, partners sat next to their drivers.In each of the experiments, one person was randomly selected to be the driver and the other the conversation partner. Throughout the extensive study, drivers talking by cell phone drove significantly worse than drivers talking to passengers. The cell-phone users were more apt(predicate) to drift in their lane, kept a greater distance between their car and the car in front, and were four times more likely to miss their designated turn. Passenger conversation b atomic number 18ly affected all three measures (American Psychological Association, 2008).Another study by a University of South Carolina psychology researcher provides a better understanding of why talking and listening on a cell phone interferes with ocular tasks such as driving. In two different experiments, associate professor of psychology Dr. Amit Almor found that supplying to speak and speaking put far more demands on the brains resources than listening. The study mensurable drivers attention levels and found people were four times more distracted while preparing to speak or speaking than when listening (University of South Carolina, 2008).This all makes sense to me, you are trying to multi-task and when you do that you are separate your attention between two or more things, thus reducing your overall awareness. Yet, there are a lot of people that still believe they drive just fine while talking on the phone. People also believe because they use a hands-free device while talking it doesnt affect their driving. I agree, but your still talking on the phone while driving. The National preven tative Council has simulatee extensive research studies and has stated, drivers using hands-free phones and those using handheld phones have a tendency to look at but not see objects.These distracted drivers experience what researchers call inattention blindness. The drivers are spirit out the windshield but they are not processing everything in the roadway environment (National condom Council, 2010). This inattention blindness causes slower reaction times, which is going to cause problems if anything unexpected happens around you. I dont receive about you, but I dont need to read a bunch of studies to know that slower reaction times will cause you to miss things when you are driving.Since Ive showed you how talking on the phone can be distracting, what do you think texting is going to do? Texting is the rage now, and it seems everybody is doing it. Why not, with these new smart phones that almost everybody has now days, it has pay back very easy to do. Even I do it on occasio n, which is surprising because before I had a smart phone, if someone texted me I would just call them rather than text back. Teenagers have this texting thing mastered. I watch my teenage daughter text and ould swear she is typing 100 wrangling per minute or more.With teens being the default experts at texting, do you think only they are irresponsible enough to text message while driving? If your upshot is yes, then you are wrong. Yes, teens text, but jibe to an article in ground forces Today, youre looking at around 10 million teen drivers, but about 180 million other adult drivers. well-nigh half of all adults admit to texting while driving in a survey by ATT provided to USA today, compared with 43% of teenagers.More than 98% of adults almost all of them admit they know its wrong (USA Today, 2013). We know its wrong, yet we still do it. Is this riding horse a good example for our teens? I think we are setting them up for failure. Think about how long it takes for you to d o a text and take into consideration your doing it with one hand since you need to keep on hand on the steering wheel. How long did you take your eyeball off the road? Shockingly, texting drivers take their eyes off the road for each text an average of 4. seconds, which at 55 mph, means they were driving the length of a football field without looking (Davis, 2010). Yes there are a lot of excuses such as traffic was light, or Im going slow, or Im at a light. To me these are just excuses. Each time you take your concentrate off the road, even if just for a split second, youre putting your life and the lives of others in danger. fit to the U. S. Department of Transportation distracted driving-related crashes caused at least 5,500 deaths and nearly 450,000 injuries in 2009 (Johnson, 2013).I imagine these be have gone up since then with the advancement in technology and the rise in popularity of cell phones. The University of North Texas Health Science Center has looked at traffic da ta from the Fatality Accident describe System and texting data from the FCC and CTIA, and came to the conclusion that texting while driving is responsible for accidents that claimed 16,141 lives during the period of 2001 2007 (Chester, 2010). Common sense should demonstrate you that texting and driving is dangerous, but plenty of people continue to do it.In an article from Psychology Today, statistics from surveys deal that 97 per centum of teens admit that texting while driving is dangerous, yet they still do it and 43 percent of them teens actually admitted to texting while driving. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, texting while driving makes you 23 times more likely to be in an accident. The National Safety Council says texting while driving is to consign for 1,600,000 accidents per year.The Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study accounts 330,000 injuries per year and 11 teen deaths every day according to the Institute for Highway Safe ty Fatality Facts (Lohmann, 2012). If these statistics dont scare you and make you rethink how your thinkable bad habits affect other people then maybe you should just turn in your drivers certify and take the bus. Due to all the distractions that cell phones create and the dangers associated with this, many states have ceremonious laws on cell phone use while driving.Eleven states, Washington D. C. , Puerto Rico, Guam and the U. S.Virgin Islands prohibit all drivers from using hold cell phones while driving. No state bans all cell phone use for all drivers, but thirty seven states and Washington D. C. ban all cell phone use by dilettante drivers, and nineteen states and Washington D. C. prohibit it for school bus drivers. Washington was the first state to pass a texting ban in 2007. Currently, forty-one states, D. C. , Puerto Rico, Guam and the U. S. Virgin Islands ban text messaging for all drivers. An additional sise states prohibit text messaging by novice drivers and thre e states restrict school bus drivers from texting. all in all but four states have primary enforcement, which means an officer may cite a driver for using a hand-held cell phone without any other traffic offense winning place (Governors Highway Safety Association, 2013). You can see that the states are cracking down on cell phone use while driving and it all is in response to the related dangers and safety concerns. Texting-while-driving penalties divert wildly from state to state and range from $20 to $10,000. These are the maximum penalties when no accident has occurred.In cases where texting while driving results in damage or injury, the punishment can go up instead sharply (Gareffa, 2013). In my kin state of Colorado, per Colorado Revised Statute 42-4-239, drivers younger than 18 are prohibited from using cell phones (handheld or hands-free) while driving with a few exceptions for emergencies. All drivers are prohibited from texting while driving. A person who violates these laws commits a class A traffic violation and the fines would be fifty dollars for the first offense and one hundred dollars for a second or subsequent offense (Colorado Peace Officers Handbook, 2013).If you dont know what the particular laws are in your home state, I strongly urge you to research that information. Conclusion As I stated in the beginning, we all rely on cell phones way too much and this is causing us to make some bad decisions. Due to our multi-tasking society we all tend to think we can handle using the cell phone while were driving. The reality is we are far more distracted when we talk on the phone while driving and this causes us to lose awareness of the environment around us.With the newer smart phones of today, texting has become a part of our existence. When we try to text while driving we have to take our eyes off the road, even if only for a second or two. This carriage endangers you and anybody around you. The statistics and data presented here and that i s unattached at other various websites should be more than enough evidence to convince you that using your cell phone while driving is a bad idea. If its not and you want to continue your current behavior then you will be responsible for the consequences.The consequences will come from your particular state laws that have been established in response to safety concerns. As I previously stated Driving is a dangerous activity in itself, but when you add other distractions like talking and or texting on a cell phone, the outcomes can be anything but pleasant and lead to extensive consequences. I hope my words here make you think twice the next time you pick up your cell phone while driving. I know Im not perfect and Im hangdog of talking on the cell phone while driving, but after writing this I know my behavior will be changing.