Electronic devices are used all over the world; It's hard to find someone who doesn't own one or more. Nowadays we can't seem to take our eyes off them. We are constantly receiving notifications, messages, playing games, watching YouTube videos, or checking social media to see if anyone liked the photo we just posted. We are all guilty of it. These devices can be both a curse and a blessing. They're distracting, but they've also proven extremely useful for gaining insights. However, there comes a point where we need to step away from it all. We can't live our lives behind a screen. Some might say that the benefits of having any electronic device far outweigh the perceived risks; however, I believe this is false when it comes to texting and driving. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay There are different types of distractions while traveling, the main three are visual, manual, and cognitive. The first is the most common among motorists: people can easily become visually distracted while driving. This could be because they need to adjust their mirrors, seats, change the radio station, or are looking outside because of something happening on the side of the road. Manual distractions occur when drivers take their hands off the wheel. Examples of this might be when we eat food, take care of our appearance, or answer calls and messages. Finally, cognitive distractions occur when your mind is not focused on driving. This could be due to emotional stress, personal problems, or when we talk to someone else in the car. This is not so dangerous, because even the passengers we travel with can see what is happening and warn the driver if necessary. Texting while driving has been found to have the highest potential for distraction as it involves all three of these factors. In an article published by The Science Teacher Magazine journalist Michael Bratsis explains that “sending or reading a text takes your eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds. At 55 miles per hour, it's like driving blindfolded the length of a football field. The government has recognized that this has become problematic and is doing what it can to resolve it. They want to improve things, but have difficulty enforcing laws against people texting while traveling. They have no way of knowing if someone was distracted by their phone or something else. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Texting while driving is banned in 46 states and the District of Columbia. Two other states ban texting while driving only for new drivers.” If people are caught texting while traveling, depending on the state they are in, they face a fine ranging from $20 to $750 and even spend time in prison. Obviously none of us want to go through this, even though we all need to be more aware of the consequences of our actions. People of every nation have become obsessed with electronics. Even when we drive we don't realize how our life could change dramatically in just a few seconds of taking our eyes off the road, or maybe we do, but we still decide that responding to a text is more important. It doesn't take much to cause an accident; in most cases we do not have time to react, which results in significant damage in one way or another.According to an article on occupational safety “more than 1.1 million collisions each year are the direct result of distracted driving.” However, people continue to text and drive every day, without considering how they may be endangering other people's lives, as well as their own. I think we should all carefully consider what we are doing when we open our car doors to travel anywhere, near or far. If it's such an urgent matter for whoever it is to get back to, then why can't we pull over somewhere safe and do it? If we have someone in the car with us, that should make it even easier. Hand over the phone and ask if they can take care of it for you. Texting and driving has become a big problem as some people who do it know they are breaking the law but continue to do it anyway. Distracted driving has always been a concern, especially among young drivers, but until now it has never received the attention it needs. What can we do to prevent this from happening? Should the government enact laws to prevent this type of behavior? Many cell phones have applications that automatically notify whoever sent the message that the recipient is currently traveling and will contact them again when it is safe to do so. Some of these apps are OneTap and AT&T DriveMode. There's also a program parents can use to lock their child's phone when the car is moving to prevent them from texting while driving, and they can only use it again once the car has reached a stopping point. These apps could be the answer to our driving problems. This is not the only way to solve it, there are other approaches we can use. Technology has advanced to the point that in the future cars will be able to drive themselves. Driverless cars have been extensively tested with very little interference. According to an article published by EHS Today "Robotic drivers are never distracted: they can perceive objects on all sides, both above and below, and their reaction times are faster than those of human drivers" (McCarthy). They have proven to work equally well in heavy traffic by stopping at stop signs and alerting the driver of upcoming turns and intersections. With this invention we will be able to talk to the people who are in the car with us, or even go on our phones and not have to worry about the road in front of us. For this reason we will be able to easily move from one place to another in a safer way. The only downside is that these cars are still years away from being produced. We rely on our phones a lot during the day. Is this still a good thing? In a way they make our life easier. We use our phones for everything, be it for entertainment, to keep in touch with friends and family, to get from one place to another, to keep up to date with everything that's going on, to shop, listen to music or just simply browse Internet. If we're not on our phones, we're on our tablets or laptops doing the same things. Phones and other electronic devices distract us from the beauty of the world around us and interact with each other in a civilized manner. People who support modern technology think this is a positive development with the ever-growing cell phone industry. They believe phones are among the most significant creations ever made. We could do much more profitable things with our time, rather than spending more hours a day on these devices. We could instead read books, spend time outside, have face-to-face conversations with people.