This research is focused on texting and driving, and thinking about how to decrease the number of drivers who text and drive. There is a wide array of sources available on this subject, and this literature review will focus on eight very helpful sources. These sources are a combination of articles with different perspectives, statistics and information. These sources help to create a cohesive argument, and have helped to determine that the best solution to decrease texting and driving is through education. More specifically, that drivers education and traffic schools should be mandated to include a unit that teaches the dangers of driving and texting.
There are three sources used for primary research. The first source, “Teens and Distracted Driving” by Mary Madden and Amanda Lenhart is extremely helpful. They conducted their own study about texting while driving, and their experimental methods
Mary Madden. Source: Pew Internet Research Center
were coherent, easy to read and legitimized their results. The authors also did a good job of using the statistics they found and putting them into a larger context. Additionally, they included conversations they had with high school students about their texting and driving behaviors. This helped personify the statistics they were presenting. Another source used as part of the primary research is an article written by Lisa Gardner, PhD, “What to do About the Problem of Texting while Driving?”. Her article provided a comprehensive summary of the problem, provided statistics and also explained the laws in great detail. Gardner was useful as a primary source for legislation because she provided a
Amanda Lenhart. Source: The Pew Research Center
comprehensive overview of the various laws. She pointed out both the strengths and weaknesses of the laws, presenting different perspectives. Although she seemed quite bias towards implementing a national ban on texting while driving, her article showed that increasing legislation is not the best approach to take. Instead, it showed that alternative solutions, such as utilizing education as a means of preventing drivers from texting and driving, were the best approach. The third source was the research conducted by Joel Cooper PhD et al. Their study is, “An Investigation of the Effects of Reading and Writing Text-Based Messages While Driving”. This is the original published study, so it does not provide much discussion about texting and driving in a larger context. However, it does present compelling statistics, and allows for the application of their findings to other articles on the topics in order to draw connections and put it in a larger context.
The other five sources were really helpful as well, and the authors had various backgrounds. They ranged from legal, governmental, scientific, business and laymen perspectives. One source that was extremely interesting was AT&T’s website dedicated to anti-texting and driving. While there is not much statistics or scholarly
AT&T’s No Texting Pledge. Source: http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=21630
research in the site, it demonstrates different strategies people are using to decrease texting and driving. While the sources came from multiple perspectives, one thing they all seemed to agree on was this: texting and driving is bad. It was difficult to find legitimate sources that argued in favor of texting and driving. After doing research, it is obvious that texting and driving is a bigger problem than most people think.