Texting While Driving

http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/national/2008/02/11/outlawing-text-messaging-while-driving.html

According to this article, up to 16 states are trying to outlaw texting. Only 2 however have actually followed through at the moment. Roughly 20% of all people text while driving, and this number goes up to over 60% when looking at 18-24 year olds only.
Recently 5 girls died after colliding with a tractor trailer truck. They had just graduated high school.

“Mass. Senate votes to ban texting while driving”

The Mass Senate wanted to try and ban texting while driving to stop all the accidents that are caused by the distraction of texting. After years of similar bills the Senate voted for a budget amendment that would ban texting or reading texts while you are driving. They said “A lot of us who opposed this in the past realize that there’s a new generation of drivers who think it’s OK to text while they’re driving,”. Massachusetts is one of the twenty one states thinking about banning texting while driving. I’m thankful this passed so you can’t text while driving because this is was just another major distraction on the road which caused a number of accidents.

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Is Social Networking Bad For Your Children?

The article that I just read was about the “F” word, meaning facebook. Every teenager is asking the question is if they can use facebook! A lot of parents see the views differently. Some think you should allow them to socialize and learn new things online. Others believe you should not, but no one really knows the true answer. Four fathers MC Hammer, Chris Kelley, John Salley, and the articles writer were having a conversation at a “gathering” about using social networks and they all disagreed about how it should be dealt with. My opinion is that teenagers should be able to use social networking if they chose to do so; I say this because my mom let me use Social Networking Sites but she also watched what I was doing online.

Next up for E-Book Readers – Social Networking and Online Sharing - Wired

Everyone is familiar with new technology devices such as iPod Touch, Cell Phones, and Laptops. Everyone is familiar with social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. One new technology that is starting to grow in popularity is E-Book readers like Amazon's "Kindle" or Sony's "Reader". These devices are relatively small, lightweight, and are relatively easy to carry around. One thing that you wouldn't expect from a device that you can buy books from is the power to access social networking sites that people are familiar with. Will the developers say "this power can be used to discuss about books and news", the answer, probably "yes". Will that power be used for social networking just on the basis of book reviews and news, the answer, most likely "no". According to Wired.com and Forrester Research analyst, Sarah Rotman Epps, "Buying and reading books is an inherently social process and the lack of robust sharing capabilities on the (Amazon) Kindle is an obvious weakness that competitors will address,". Knowing this, many companies are currently in development of this type of social networking bridge. In my honest opinion, if you really have to be connected to these sites constantly from cell phone, to computer, and now to Kindle, your perspective on the try functions of devices become shadowed. Plus, the more portable you make the devices that run this type of software, the less options you will have in order to protect yourself online. For example, I cannot block a user on Facebook from my iPhone, but I can on my computer. Obviously, the phone is advanced enough to support the full web site through the internet browser application, but MySpace will always bring me to the mobile version and bug me about their less-protected application. How fun.

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