We all text to communicate; its become even more easy with unlimited text message plans. I love the fact that I don't need to have a direct conversation, I'd rather be able to ask or answer a question and move on. There are times when texting has gone out of control for me: recently a friend and I exchanged 80-something text messages to discuss some issues in the news (not while driving, thankfully). I only have a 250 text plan, but have found that that is not enough anymore. To illustrate this, these numbers just blow my mind: In June of 2005 people texted 7.2 billion times - wow. How about June of 2008? 75 billion text messages were sent and received. Amazing. This is according to CTIA - the Wireless Association.
The reason I'm writing this today is because I've found that I am texting (& twittering - which is different from having a nervous tick, but not by much) more and more on the road. After reading a few articles and hearing about the train accident in California this past week, I've decided that I will not text or twitter while driving anymore. In this fast paced world, we've all become more and more accustomed to being able to communicate at any time, anywhere. With the popularity of the iPhone and its many useful features, I've found that while texting or trying to communicate instantaneously is simple, it is also becoming a much more dangerous activity. Especially when you consider all the other drivers texting while driving.
Several organizations have done some sort of research on the effects of texting while driving; this is what the UK's Transport Research Laboratory found:
- Texting behind the wheel impairs driving skills more than being drunk or high
- Reaction times deteriorated by 35% (which is worse than being drunk @ the legal limit - 12% worse reaction time)
- Drivers drifted out of their lanes more often - steering control was found to be 91% worse
2 comments:
Suprisingly, I do my best texting/twittering while driving. In fact, this comment is posted while driving. Just kidding...
Seriously though, the more connected we get, the more important we feel we are and think everything has extreme urgency or the world will crumble. Try this out: Don't check your e-mail before 9am for two weeks, and see if you survive. 95% of things can seriously wait...
Great post. And that's a great decision to stop texting while driving.
That's why I signed up over a year ago for Jott.com when it was in beta. It's a speech-to-text service that took care of most of my texting needs, including Twitter, GCal, and to-do lists. But Jott came out of beta and is no longer free, so now I use dial2do.com for text and email (with a bit of reqall.com for my reminders and to-do lists). So far dial2do.com has been great .. I think I like it better than Jott for basic needs. You all should give it a shot!
I haven't completely stopped looking at my phone while driving though. I still text occasionally. And I'm often on Google Maps for directions or traffic.
Are we too connected, infatuated with instant communication? I do think so. It's too easy now to avoid a phone call or even a nice long email. It's even too easy to get distracted by the phone when having quality one-on-one time with a friend. How far will this go?
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