An Examination of the Effects of Texting While Driving

How Does Texting While Driving Effect People and How Can It Be Changed?

For anyone, learning to drive is a great milestone in their lives. The development of technology especially cell phones and other electronic devices have enhanced the speed at which people get information and stay connected with the rest of the world. There are however some
things in life that do not mix properly. As driving may be a good experience for most people, texting while driving is a dangerous act. The number of people who die annually due to accidents that are caused while texting continues to increase.

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How Does Texting While Driving Impair People?

Texting while driving is dangerous to any person as it offers a significant source of distraction to the river. Texting while driving is main prevalent in teens. The main reason that this problem is prevalent with teens is that teens do not have the considerable amount of experience while driving and that their brains are not yet fully developed. This makes the teens be more susceptible to poor judgments and distractions. Texting while driving involve the diversion of the attention of the driver since the driver is temporarily focused on the electronic devices or mobile phones. According to Privus (11), this then reduces the driver's concentration, awareness, pertormance, and decision making thereby leading to crashes, near-crashes or corrective actions. The other aspect of texting while driving is that the driver has to use their hands, ears or hands while driving and these are some of the most components that one must use while driving.

What Can Be Done to Prevent Texting While Driving?

Due to the immense impact that texting has had on the number of car accidents, there is a need to come up with measures to ensure that texting while driving is prevented. One of the best ways that can be implemented is the enactment of laws that prevent texting while driving. The national safety transport authority has the mandate to ensure that individuals who are found texting while driving are arrested. The other strategy that may be implemented so as to ensure that texting while driving is prevented is through the establishment of procedures in the workplaces that do not need the employees to send messages or emails while they are traveling or driving. The areas of work should also have policies that establish the rules and procedures that employees have to follow in that there are specific times and places that the drivers are supposed to use text messages while driving. This would ensure that employees would only text when they know that they are not driving (EDITORIAL).

The other aspect that may have to be considered is the use of no voice texting in that some of the mobile phone applications can be used to send text and read text messages based on the application format. The voice to texting format can enable the drivers to focus on the road more than texting manually. In some ambitious way, a phone application has been developed that does not allow one to text while driving. Once the driver has activated the driving mode on the profile of the phone, the phone automatically does not receive any text messages or send any. Since the problem of texting while driving is mostly prevalent with teens, it is vital that the parents of these teens are involved in the process. Some of the steps that parents can use to prevent their children from texting while driving may include talking to the teens about the dangers of texting while driving, expressing their concerns that they have regarding their behaviors while driving and keeping the conversations about the dangers of text driving over time.

The parents may also have other roles such as setting rules of the road. In this step, the parents can enforce contracts that they have between them and their kids about driving safely (Gibes, 1). If individuals cannot be in a position to drive without texting, then there are other strategies that can be implemented to increase their multitasking abilities. Multitasking can be well-defined as the ability of a person to pertorm several tasks at the same time. People normally multitask without even realizing that they are multitasking. Some of the reasons as to why it is difficult for individuals to multitask are that the human brain is not built for multitasking purposes. An individual is not in a point to focus on the task at hand 100%. The brain of a person is forced to stop and refocus on the second task that the individual is planning to work on. Additionally, the brain continuously pays attention partially in that it streams the information that is being relayed to it and then analyzes the information without going deep into the information.

Sometimes the brain is not in a position to prioritize the information that is being relayed (Cellcontrol). In order to improve the multitasking abilities of individuals so that they can be able to multitask, one has to make a to-do list. For individuals, it is vital that they have a plan of what they want to accomplish the following day. This would enable the persons to not only prioritize what they will do the following day but also visualize what will be done. This enables the persons to address the tasks that are more vital and group the similar tasks together. The second way in which people who love to text while driving can improve their multitasking abilities is through prioritization. Once an individual is able to identify the vital tasks, they can then pay more attention to the tasks and make sure that those tasks are of the highest priority.

Solving tasks in blocks also enables one to improve their multitasking capabilities. A person can have areas where they know that they will make a stop and perform all their tasks at once so that they can be able to focus on their driving. This way, they will be able to complete the tasks that they are undertaking quicker than completing the tasks one by one. The other strategy that can be used so as to improve multitasking is the use of delegation. When an individual is driving, there is no harm in letting another person send a text or read a text to you. This way, one can avoid further distractions. One also has to ensure that they practice one daily basis how to text while driving. This gives them the basic cognitive process in the brain, and it is vital during the actual texting time. Teaching people to be more focused on the read entails several multitasking processes. The use of road signs and warnings can also enable road users to avoid texting while driving.

Conclusion

The development of technology especially cell phones and other electronic devices have enhanced the speed at which people get information and stay connected with the rest of the world. Since the problem of texting while driving is mostly prevalent with teens, it is vital that
the parents of these teens are involved in the process. Some of the steps that parents can use to prevent their children from texting while driving may include talking to the teens about the dangers of texting while driving, expressing their concerns that they have regarding their
behaviors while driving and keeping the conversations about the dangers of text driving over time.

Works Cited

1. Privus, Mobile. "Privus Mobile® Makes Texting While Driving Solution Accessible to All Smartphone Users." Business Wire (English) 7: Regional Business News. Web. 30 Nov.2015.
2. "EDITORIAL: Ban on texting while driving a partial solution." Pantagraph, The (Bloomington,IL) 11 Aug. 2009: Newspaper Source. Web. 30 Nov. 2015. Cellcontrol. (3).
3. Cellcontrol Offers First Distracted Driving Solution to Fully Comply with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration Ruling for Commercial Motor Vehicles Business Wire (English).
4. Cellcontrol. "Cellcontrol Offers First Distracted Driving Solution to Fully Comply with Federal Motor Carier Safety Administration Ruling for Commercial Motor Vehicles." Business Wire (English) 3: Regional Business News. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
5. Gibes, Al. "Las Vegas Review-Journal Al Gibes column: ONLINE GUY: ZoomSafer aims to stop distracted driving in its tracks." Las Vegas Review-Journal (NV) 08 Aug. 2010:Newspaper Source. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

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