Ten Ways to Stop Texting Behind the Wheel
Just today, heard about an auto fatality, first grief case of 2015. Somebody's sister, daughter. Somebody's friend. At a stoplight that signature tone announces an incoming text. "Somebody loves me," I tell no one. 'Somebody loves me' is what FD says when his beeper goes off. He still has a pager and it still goes off at the worst times. He is always on the phone. If he had it his way, the chirp of the pager, high pitched, annoying, should mimic a baby's cry. The cry could be for anything from a request for a referral, to a medical emergency. Somebody loves him, loves that he can fulfill a need. His lover wants him to respond immediately, which he does. But we're not all doctors, and he doesn't text and drive. That someone ‘needs me,’ or ‘loves me,’ explains why we find it so difficult to ignore our phones, either while driving or anywhere else, even in the shower. It just feels good, being the object of someone’s communication, being in someone ...