No more bad habits

Growing up in a generation that advanced technology has been normalized is an immense challenge now that I am at the age of driving. I don’t have to solely listen to the radio, use a map for directions, or wait till I’m home to contact someone on my phone. While all of these upgrades have made things easier and more enjoyable, they have also introduced me to many unsafe habits. One of the biggest habits I have learned while driving is using my phone to change my music. Instead of only having different radio stations to listen to that I can change with a button on my car, I now have an app on my phone with endless options of songs and podcasts to listen to. It has made driving one of my favorite activities because I can enjoy my music in my own space. My car gives me the option on my steering wheel to change my volume and skip songs, which most of the time is enough, but when I want to change playlists or want to see what a song is I am required to look at my phone. Instead of waiting till I am not driving I will pick up my phone and look at my music, however once I pick up my phone I tend to get distracted queuing songs I want to listen to next or looking at what songs spotify has picked out to play for me. This means I am on my phone longer than necessary and I am still driving. As much as this has been engraved into my brain as a bad thing, I’ve never had an experience where anything bad happens because I am on my phone, giving me more confidence to do it again. I am aware that many of my friends do the same thing and haven’t had any negative consequences as well, normalizing my bad habit further. Apart from recognizing this bad habit of mine I am a person who outwardly cares deeply about everyone in my life. I am disappointed in myself for being able to tell people I care for everyone but at the same time continue with a habit that could put so many in danger as well as myself. For the future I want to change my habits. Instead of picking out songs as I drive I will pick a playlist or plan a que of songs before I start driving, thus eliminating the need to go on my phone for song choice. I will start to use my control buttons on my steering wheel to change the volume and/or skip songs. And I will use another form of advanced technology, Siri, to tell me what song is playing if I am curious. Siri is connected to my voice and won’t require me to look at my phone at all. I am aware that habits are hard to break, especially the bad ones. I know that I will probably forget occasionally and pick up my phone anyways, but I will continue to work at eliminating my habit to keep me and the people around me safer on the roads. Driving is a privilege and a luxury I do not want to take advantage of because I want to be on my phone. I am extremely grateful that we have developed technology allowing us to listen to music and text and search things up at such convenience but I have definitely abused this ability and I believe that many others have too. I think as a community we should work towards better education and rules on phone usage while driving. As a highschool student myself I am aware that it isn’t safe to text and drive and I have heard stories from teachers and other educators about the bad things that have happened to those who do text and drive, but I’ve never been sat down and taught the important reasons I can’t be on my phone as I drive or examples that I can resonate with as a teenager. Studies have shown that around 1.6 million crashes each year are caused by texting and driving and being on your phone while driving increases the time your eyes are off of the road by four hundred percent. I believe that the increase of texting and driving is caused by the advancements in technology and a generation who has always grown up with phones, giving us more confidence to use our phone and drive. Especially as a teen, we are more confident that we can multitask, we have a higher false confidence, and we have less experience behind the wheel. There is proof showing that the human brain is incapable of multitasking, when you think you are, you’re just rapidly changing between tasks, allowing more chance of error and impeding on your thought process. This false idea of multitasking heightens our false confidence and pushes us to keep using our phones while driving. While I do believe growing up with a phone makes it easier for you to mindlessly use it while driving compared to someone who has spent the majority of their life with no phone or a landline, it is clear that it still is unsafe. Moving towards a better solution we have to acknowledge the fact that many people wait long enough to get a driver’s license that they don’t have to go through drivers ed or another form of class that teaches you about road rules. This gives them no chance to really learn the dangers of phone use on the road. My proposal is to put this important lesson into something everyone is required to do, school. If we dedicate even a small amount of our education to road and driving safety it will be better engraved in our minds what we should and shouldn’t do while behind the wheel. Starting in middle school, an age where students are potentially starting to think about their license and ability to drive, we can emphasize the importance of everyone’s safety on the road. This will not help change the habits of current drivers as they have already been through that part of their schooling, but it will help set up our future generations for success. Overall improving our safety on the roads and eliminating this bad habit of texting and driving.