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Text-Messaging Behind the Wheel
theodp writes "TIME interviews 21-year-old Taylor Leming, creator of the 600-member Facebook group I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet! While Alaska and Louisiana just became the latest states to pass laws banning text-messaging behind the wheel, Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
I say sue the phone makers to remove texting capability after the crash and play the "well I was too stupid to think for myself and I need big brother to make texting/keypads illegal on EVERYTHING"
mwaha.? hah?
I've been in cars with people texting, calling people on their phones, and fiddling with the radio; all of those bother me a little. I don't feel very unsafe however. What really gets me, is when I'm driving on a highway, and I have to sneeze. Repeated sneezing is easily more dangerous. Write to your local congress representative and have them outlaw sneezing while driving.
As you honestly don't seem to understand the use of text messages, I'll explain why I find them useful: for communicating small amounts of information that don't require conversation, and out of respect for the other person's time.
Let's face it, most people don't want to be interrupted whenever they're doing something. You might be out shopping for groceries, visiting a friend's house, or eating a restaurant, and you probably have your phone with you in case there's an emergency and/or you need to call somebody, but you don't want somebody to call you and suddenly want to have a conversation. Heck, at least in those situations you can talk if you want to; you can't exactly answer your phone and have a conversation at all if, say, you're watching a presentation at work, or if you're already on the phone with somebody else.
Ever heard of voicemail? If I'm somewhere where I can't answer the phone and I get a call, I simply let it go to voicemail. If it's that damn important, leave a short message. If the voicemail notifier goes off, I excuse myself and check it. Otherwise, I figure I can call them back later.
If I ever get a text message asking me a simple question while I'm in the grocery store, I would probably be 1) pissed because it just cost me $0.15 and 2) pick up the phone and call the person back. Pick up your damn phone and call. I will decide if your call is important enough at that time to take. If it's not and I'm really busy, it can go to voicemail. Most people have enough sense to realize that if it's really important, they'll either leave a voicemail or they'll call back right away a second time.
When you get a text message, rather than answering your phone immediately, you can view it at your leisure, and it only takes a second of your time to read it. I can tell my girlfriend, "working late tonight, I'll be home in an hour," or my D&D buddies, "On my way, be there 30 minutes," or a couple of my coworkers, "Meet for lunch at Rudy's BBQ", and it only takes ten seconds of my time and effectively none of theirs. I can even send the same message to half a dozen people at once, and that's much faster than calling half a dozen people and repeating the same conversation every time. If, for some reason, they need to answer the message, they can also do so without disturbing any people around them who don't want to listen to somebody chatting on their cell phone.
Or you could, you know, call one person and tell them to let everyone else know. Why even text 5 or 10 people if they're all waiting in the same place? That makes even less sense then a short, 1 min phone call to tell one person "Be there in 5 mins". If that one person can't let everyone else know, then maybe they're just retarded.
Does that make more sense? Yes, text messages are a horribly inefficient way of having a conversation, but they're not for conversing, they're for disseminating information.
Yes, and we all know that everybody uses every piece of technology exactly the way it was always intended to be used. In short, no, it doesn't make more sense.