U.S.'s Amazing New 'Don't Text and Drive' Ad Will Leave You Shaking

[customerserviceguy]

118. I find that a poor comparison

Phones are immediate, and two-way, like conversation between two people in the same room. Letters are clearly much slower. I'm sure that high cost was a prohibitive factor for those contemplating moving from letter writing to telephoning, but it's clear that by a century ago, the telephone was able to compete with postage of only two cents a letter.

Also, getting a telephone didn't mean that you would use it to distract yourself to the point where you're a danger to others. Even the cellular mobile phone allows one to use one's eyes to track one's surroundings while carrying on a conversation (despite the fools who seem to need to look at the general direction of the phone), whereas texting ALWAYS involves visual distraction.

As for communicating to many people quickly, that was figured out when we developed email. You could always use that. Of course, once upon a time, people were excited to get an email, now we know that a "You've Got Mail" is much more than likely to be a piece of spam, even if it's from a trusted sender. In other words, there is no addictive compulsion to check email like there is with a text. Maybe junk texts would change that attitude.

Your comments on airbags are apt, you use a timespan of 20 years to make your point. Airbags only protect the occupants of the car that is equipped with them, what protects me from the teenaged obliviot who seems to need to LOL with his/her BFF at the exact moment the light turns red? Frankly, one of the reasons I bought a new car about a year ago was the advanced airbags, including side curtain ones. Still, I'm not as indestructible as the texting clown who hits me thinks he is.

Why shouldn't we take away that which too many people are so incredibly willing to misuse, with devastating results to the innocent?