Jay Cronley: Tweet less, drive more safely please
BY JAY CRONLEY World Staff Columnist
Friday, January 18, 2013
1/18/13 at 3:56 AM
Evidence has begun to show that sending and receiving text messages can be an addiction, a beautiful obsession when it comes to minding your own business in places like airports and malls, a terrifying affliction when it comes to typing or Tweeting WHADDUP while driving in rush-time traffic.
The brain reacts positively to text message responses and says: more, more, more.
Being alone with your thoughts is not always as entertaining as some numbskull's.
It's not magic: Science indicates that the human brain is at its best with a single focus; multitasking is actually speed-tasking.
That's why magicians knock us out. They do their best work just outside a focal point that often features something that's immediately memorable, something skimpy or something dangerous, something that doesn't really matter.
This is not to say that a driver singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" at the top of his lungs hasn't caused a horrific traffic accident. The better a vehicle travels over the highway, the more boring driving becomes. On something like the open road through western Oklahoma, many drivers find themselves with novels - reading them, not listening to them on tape.
Equipment panels on new vehicles compete with the road for your attention.
I thought about tipping over the other day reaching for something on the passenger-side floorboard.
And who hasn't driven after having had too much to drink?
The fortunate drinkers and drivers hit something made of wood, a barricade, a garage, and realize that a foot one way or the other and somebody could have been dead, dozens of lives ruined; and the lucky ones get to stop taking chances.
Honking addictions: So many people are sending text messages while driving that a particular style of road danger has become apparent.
When somebody honks, a driver looking down and reading or sending text messages will simply stomp the gas like a bug was on the floorboard. They feel embarrassed and usually just burst forward at the sound of any horn.
So honk only at an animal or a pedestrian. Don't hit the horn at anybody looking down in a regular car or vehicle, or they'll be apt to gun it first and ask questions later.
Any addiction that is dropped has to be replaced with something productive.
So what's there to do while driving besides drive?
Here's a possibility. Keep an eye open for crime.
Original Print Headline: Tweet less, drive more safely please
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