Oprahs Article on Texting and Driving - Literature review Example

Oprah’s Article on Texting and DrivingIn 1973 when Oprah Winfrey started out as a reporter, she had witnessed the increase in the number of drunk drivers that were causing a great amount of havoc on the streets of not only Chicago, but in the rest of the country as well. The local broadcast would include stories of deaths caused by drivers intoxicated and not able to control the road, thus. However, the main cause for grievance behind this was that people were not really understanding when and how to stop this phenomenon from getting larger.

There were daily reports of deaths being caused by drunken drivers, but a very small number of people were doing anything in order to curb the situation or beware of it. Even though after spreading a lot of awareness about the same and enforcing laws with relation to prosecution on the basis of drunk driving the number of deaths went down to almost half, they did not stop. Deaths were still being caused on roads, however this time the focus had shifted from drinking and driving to texting and driving.

With the advent of technology and almost everyone possessing a cell phone, texting and taking calls has become a very vital aspect of people’s lives to such an extent that most people have stopped caring about what is in front of them on the roads and bother more about what is written on their mobile screens. Oprah has cited a number of statements and reports with regard to killings caused by distracted drivers and she even visited a couple in Colorado whose daughter was killed because of the negligence caused on the part of a driver who was focusing more on texting and less on the road.

The article states a number of statistics with regard to the number of killings caused per year in the country as well and also cites the fact that President Obama has even laid down a federal law with regard to texting and driving and the consequences that any driver not following the rules and regulations might have to undergo. The main thing to look into however is the fact that many people do very little to change all of this. A person gets rarely affected by a situation unless it happens to him directly or to a family member.

Thus, grieving about people who die due to such negligence on part of drivers on roads is very momentary and this is what causes reluctance in people to change. It is true that there are many people who might be moved by such stories once in a while, but with time, they soon forget unless it happens to them directly. This is a very persuasive article written by the renowned television host and has been written with an aim to try and convince people to give up this process of texting and driving in order to save lives.

On a general basis, people are not doctors or magicians; however they can do their bit by trying to keep a vigil on the road when they are driving. Oprah mentions, ‘whatever happened to just driving?’ This is very true because earlier, when people did not possess mobiles, they continued driving better as their eyes were glued to the road ahead. With the onset of the use of cell phones, people have stopped caring as much as they used to. It is quite upsetting to note that most people are taking to multi tasking these days without being able to do so.

This means that people feel that they should finish off with their communication and cell phone related work in the car itself, while driving, so that they have enough time to get on with the rest of their lives and complete their other tasks. Even so, thirty years ago, when people did not make use of phones, they still had twenty four hours in a day and so do they, now. Thus, nowadays people are trying their best to get more work done without understanding the implications of the harm they might be causing to others.

All of this must be put to a stop soon otherwise it can lead to a serious increase in death rates and the government taking extremely tight and stringent measures to curb the issue by use of force. (Winfrey, 2010)Works CitedWinfrey, Oprah. (2010) “Article on Texting and Driving.” Chicago.