A Dopamine Squirt
July 23, 2009, 10:20 am
Posted by Cathleen Kaveny
Maureen Dowd on driving while talking on a cell-phone. Any idea why it’s more dangerous than talking to passengers in the car?
I have yet to hear someone on a cell phone tell me that I’m not paying attention and that I am going to hit that guy on the bicycle.
Also, I don’t have to take my eyes off the road and poke a passenger eleven times to get them to start talking, at least since grandpa passed away.
Check out the piece the NYT ran on Sunday on this topic. It was quie good. As I remember, talking to an adult in the car is different bc:
1. they can and often do “help” you with the road
2. in poor driving conditions, an adult passenger often remains quiet to help the driver concentrate on the road. An interlocutor on the phone isn’t immediately aware of the conditions (weather etc)
For some reason, I couldn’t use the link in the original post, but this one seems to work:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/opinion/22dowd.html?em
The fact that driving while on a cell phone is akin to driving while intoxicated is particularly chilling.
I still think a big part of the effect is a data-gathering artifact — the category “talking on the cell phone” includes looking through your contacts to find a number, typing your passcode into voicemail, playing with your ringtone settings, and all the other things people do when they’re bored and holding a cellphone in their hands.
I think part of the reason why talking on a phone is more dangerous is that the person you’re talking to is disembodied. There is a lack of connection with your immediate environment that can lead to carelessness and distraction. By contrast, if the person you are speaking with is right there in your personal space, your conversation is more firmly connected to everything else that is in your environment.
So once again, we see how important it is to have an incarnational approach to life as opposed to an overly spiritualized approach. ;-)
Since Fordham U did not call me to evangelize their campus, I toy with a Defensive Driving Company in retirement. Despite my theological and historical superiority. There is not the slightest doubt that even speaker phones are as dangerous as holding the phone on the ear. The results are in. Just as drivers are prosecuted for murder if they kill someone while driving drunk there will come a time when drivers will be prosecuted for killing or injuring someone while using the cell phone. I tell people in my classes that they will not forget coming to the class as I challenge them to forego unsafe habits.
The car is still a sacred cow in this country. Advertisements about cars emphasize speed and performance over safety. http://taiw.org/default.aspx