The Dangers of Using a Cell Phone While Driving, Essay Example

Cell and smartphone technology has changed the ways people live, and the devices offer a wide variety of advantages.  Communication and Internet access are enabled from virtually anywhere, so users carry on business and social interactions while walking down the street and on planes and trains, as well as from their homes and work places. Unfortunately, this universal access also encourages people to use their phones while driving, and this goes to real danger for themselves and for others on the roads.  The reality is that using a cell while driving, for communication or any other purpose, distracts the driver and promotes the likelihood for accidents, and all drivers must accept that using a cell while driving is reckless behavior under any circumstances.

To begin with, the driver who talks, texts, or uses their cell in any capacity is ignoring the primary responsibility of driving, which is to constantly be aware of safety.  Human beings, their belief in their abilities to “multitask” notwithstanding, have limits on how well they can focus on any task at hand.  Experienced drivers often feel that they are in complete control of their vehicles and perceive the driving as second-nature. This thinking in place, they feel fully comfortable in reaching for their phones and communicating, assured that they can do this while adequately paying attention to the road.  No viewpoint could be more risky, however, because the circumstances of the driving can easily change in the matter of a fraction of a moment.  Engaging in cell use inevitably translates to being distracted to an extent, which means that the driver’s awareness of the constantly changing reality of the road is greatly weakened.  Merely listening to another on the phone requires focus of attention, and while that is occurring it is all too possible that the driver will miss seeing a danger, ranging from a car ahead stopping short to a pedestrian suddenly crossing the road. Using the phone then enables enormous risk, and because there is no escaping that the driver’s attention is at best divided.

Then, it seems that a major reason drivers use cells while behind the wheel goes to the misconception regarding driving itself.  Many people feel that driving is a right and, as long as they operate their vehicles with a reasonable command of them, they are entitled to engage in other activities. This is thinking that is both extremely dangerous and completely inaccurate. Driving is, first and foremost, a privilege and not a right. The fact that testing and licenses are required confirms this.  In American culture, the car has taken on great personal importance and this leads to undue senses of entitlement, but no one is exempt from the responsibility to maintain attention on the driving at all times. To use a cell while driving then equates to an unethical, risky, and often illegal disregard of driving as a privilege.

Lastly, it must be understood that cell usage while driving is not appreciably different than any other negative influence or distraction both illegal and threatening to the driver and other drivers and pedestrians.  The driver who takes the road while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, certainly, faces arrest because they are endangering the lives of others.  This is established fact, just as texting or speaking on the cell is also documented as seriously impeding the driver’s concentration.  It is then necessary that all who take the wheel understand that using the cell is essentially no different than being intoxicated.  It turns attention away from the shifting realities of the road, the driver’s mind is “elsewhere,” and the potentials for accidents are significantly increased.

Cell and smartphones do offer great benefits to all, and the larger reality is that many today are virtually dependent on the technology.  Any technology, however, carries with it the need for the user to fully accept the responsibilities of it, just as individuals must understand that they are obligated to devote all their attention to the driving. If it is tempting to pick up the cell while moving down the road, it is far more important that every driver realizes how danger may instantaneously appear, and there is no valid excuse for allowing the distraction of the phone use.