What bothers me most is the fact txting/calling while driving has always been as dangerous now as it was 2 decades ago when cell phones were first introduced, only that now because it is illegal, it gets way more attention than it should. Sorry but 5 years ago nobody gave a crap. Yet, people can just as easily distract themselves while eating, changing the MP3, doing make up with visor fully down and just as easily not pay attention to the road - perfectly legal. Why does the cell phone get such a bad rap?
I'm not a fan. One more unnecessary law. If I had to pull over everytime I sent or received a text I'd never get anywhere lol.
It's not because it's illegal that it gets more attention, it's because it's something that has grown in popularity at a high pace/rate and become a part of culture. 2 decades ago, not only was texting not extremely common (if at all), cell phone ownership wasn't nearly as popular as it is now. Now kids have cell phones, companies offer family plans - cell phones, while not cheap, have become relatively affordable to everyone. This was not the case from the beginning. For the first few years, cell phones were used mostly for business, often being provided by employers. Average people had pagers, if anything but cell phones ownership for personal use only started increasing in the early 2000's. I resisted getting a cell phone until I moved here and simply had no choice in late 2005. By then, many of my friends had cell phones but several still did not. Now it's practically impossible not to have one, which you know if you ever had your phone die on you and had to find a working payphone to call from instead - they're really hard to find.
And that's just phone ownership, not texting, which I personally embraced from the time I got my first phone. But since then, I've seen lots of people start their texting habit and quite a few reject it. One thing is for sure, there is no comparison between the amount of text messages sent in 1993, 1999 or even 2004 and 2013. The numbers are off the charts. Which logically explains why more accidents would be occurring and continue to increase, resulting in more attention being paid to a growing dangerous trend amongst all age groups...
If it wasn't widespread, increasing, common and so dangerous - it wouldn't have made any sense to impose laws. The fact that people's reckless habits while driving and texting ruin lives and end many others and that this is only increasing over the last few years, makes laws the only responsible thing to do. However laws don't solve the problem, obviously people will still do stupid things when they don't know or choose to ignore the danger they represent on others or themselves by their actions - as you clearly demonstrate.
Your comment wouldn't be any more acceptable if you told us how you feel entitled to drive drunk every day because otherwise you'd never get anywhere. The reasonable response to that, as the reasonable response to your texting comment, is that perhaps it would be best for you and everyone else on the road, that you do just that: stay home and instead walk & text as much as you want. The problem is distraction. The reason it gets more attention is that it involves more people and more time. How many times do people change the music and how long does it take? You think it compares in any way to the time it takes to read and type several messages every time you get in the car? Please. Sorry but maybe you should have spent your time actually watching the video instead!
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