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The Era of Texting

Texting has become a part of the American way of life in addition studies show that texting while driving and walking has led to an increased rate of fatal and serious car crashes.

According to the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which conducted the first on distractions for car and truck drivers, found that the risk of a car crash or a near car crash was 23 times more likely to occur to a driver text messaging than a driver who is not distracted.

Lora Rakowski, the Public Information Officer for Maryland State Highway Administration, said that the new law banning texting while driving sends the clear message that this is a dangerous and serious issue.

“Texting while driving has been compared to driving while impaired, so by banning this, it of course helps other drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists who are not doing anything wrong on the road,” said Rakowski.

Lois Higgins, 52, of Northwest, DC, thinks that the only time anyone should be texting is when they are in the movies or somewhere else where they cannot talk on the phone, but need to tell someone their location, or in the event of an emergency.

“Texting is so cold and impersonal,” said Higgins, a mother of three with three grandchildren.

“I don’t really worry about my children as much, but I don’t think my grandchildren will properly develop their social and personal interactions-they will have horrible social etiquette,” said Higgins.

Moloweh Kamara, a 21-year-old student at Frostburg University in Maryland, admits that texting has interfered in many parts of her life, mostly in her social and collegiate life.

“Sometimes I text while I walk down the streets with my friends because I need to keep in touch with people, and if we are not really talking about anything, it becomes a habit,” said Kamara.  “Plus if I just met a guy I will be texting him in the beginning because we don’t have anything to talk about on the phone yet-it just takes some time.”

Kamara said that these habits have been counterproductive with her school work, as she sometimes writes “u” and “lol” in her papers, but that she was so happy that spell check came in handy at this point.