Oprah Winfrey's Essay 'DND TXT N DRV'

Oprah Winfrey’s essay titled “DND TXT N DRV” attempts to show the state of distracted driving in our world, outlining specifically how distracted driving has become normalized in our society and individuals’ developed sense of entitlement to use their phones while driving, leading to denial of the risks and dangers associated. While it’s true that the physical action of hanging up or switching off a phone while driving is a simple one, actually doing so may not be as simple for everyone. Using a cell phone while driving has become habitual for most, with pressures to be constantly available and responsive in our new digital age we as a society ¬¬¬have accepted the potential consequences involved in this behavior, yet have failed to do an accurate

While we have made progress in reducing the number of fatalities due to drunken driving, the number of deaths caused by phone use while driving is on the rise. She purports that we find ourselves in a similar predicament today where a new form of distracted driving has over time become a taboo almost completely accepted by society today, shown by the sheer magnitude of the increase in incidents and deaths along with the general public’s and 4th estate’s rising desensitization to the

Although I have nothing against direct legislation on a federal, state, or local level, I believe this issue will never be truly solved until every member of the public accepts the true weight of the privilege of driving. One major hurdle in ending this behavior is its normalization. People use their phones while driving without thinking about the consequences, compartmentalizing their actions, and using denial masquerading as self-assurance to justify themselves. Also, since the ingraining of technology into daily lives, it’s difficult to disconnect even when we are behind the wheel, feeling an urgency to respond to messages and calls because of the social obligation to be connected at all times. Similarly, people often have a sense of entitlement to use their phones as they feel are good drivers and that they can multitask, however, this is not but another form of