Since Alexander Graham Bell’s successful 1876 telephone call to his colleague Watson, the concept of immediate, practical, and mobile communication has enraptured not only Bell’s home country, the United States, but also the rest of the modern world. Telephones, and mobile phones especially, significantly contributed to the advent of the current universal culture, a culture in which individuals can contact one another from a mere couple of miles away, from separate continents, or even from an IP phone while orbiting the Earth. Within the last ten to fifteen years, the cell phone has become a staple of the modern world; in the United States, nearly two-thirds of Americans own and regularly use the cell phone’s most recent incarnation, the “smart
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More importantly, the act of either talking or texting while driving distracts the brain from adequately registering one’s visual field, resulting in what researchers refer to as “inattention blindness” which could result in poor driving decisions; inattention blindness occurs exclusively when talking on a cell phone as opposed to when one is talking to an actual passenger because a passenger tends to “slow down or stop speaking as driving conditions change and…alert drivers to potential danger.” The distraction presented by cell phone usage while driving poses the short-term danger of possible accident and minor injury, but in the long term, it could also lead to a fatal injury for the driver, other passengers, or even fellow, unrelated drivers. The simple solution to cell phone related driving incidents is to resolve to ignore one’s cell phone entirely while driving a moving vehicle; any cell phone related actions should be addressed prior to moving the vehicle from a stationary …show more content…
However, for those concerned, organizations like the World Health Organization—which plans to publish its formal risk assessment of all health outcomes from radiofrequency exposure by the end of 2016—recommend that cell phone users more frequently utilize the texting function, which allows the user to handle the phone from a safe distance away from any organ which may be affected; engage in briefer phone conversations when holding the handset directly against the head; or adopt hands-free devices, such as Bluetooth
More importantly, the act of either talking or texting while driving distracts the brain from adequately registering one’s visual field, resulting in what researchers refer to as “inattention blindness” which could result in poor driving decisions; inattention blindness occurs exclusively when talking on a cell phone as opposed to when one is talking to an actual passenger because a passenger tends to “slow down or stop speaking as driving conditions change and…alert drivers to potential danger.” The distraction presented by cell phone usage while driving poses the short-term danger of possible accident and minor injury, but in the long term, it could also lead to a fatal injury for the driver, other passengers, or even fellow, unrelated drivers. The simple solution to cell phone related driving incidents is to resolve to ignore one’s cell phone entirely while driving a moving vehicle; any cell phone related actions should be addressed prior to moving the vehicle from a stationary …show more content…
However, for those concerned, organizations like the World Health Organization—which plans to publish its formal risk assessment of all health outcomes from radiofrequency exposure by the end of 2016—recommend that cell phone users more frequently utilize the texting function, which allows the user to handle the phone from a safe distance away from any organ which may be affected; engage in briefer phone conversations when holding the handset directly against the head; or adopt hands-free devices, such as Bluetooth