Peer Panel Deals With Texting While Driving

Victoria Watson wants to know more about teen texting and driving. She personally knows this is a very dangerous trait and wonders why it continues? Our panel of teen experts weigh in on this topical discussion. Our students from the area are welcome to express their own views on this timely subject.

Curt Walls, Ladue

Maybe it's because many teens don't think before they act. It could also be the factor that they don't believe something bad will happen to them because they are too coordinated or they have mastered driving.

 Spencer Desai, MICDS

This problem is much like drinking and driving and other issues that result in death and can be easily preventable. They are stupid and careless actions so it is only natural to wonder why people wouldn't just stop them. The truth is simple: the message just doesn't get across to some people.

Whether they think, "that could never happen to me" or "they're just blowing this out of proportion", some teens just won't listen and continue to text and drive. The only thing that we can do to reverse this dangerous behavior is to continue to try and raise awareness through multiple means to reach all teens.

Allison Hermann, St. Joe

I think that teenagers continue to text while driving because they do not believe that they will ever get hurt. They see other people getting hurt by texting but they think that it will never happen to them.

Also, if teenagers text and drive once and nothing happens that time, they continue to believe that nothing will ever happen to them. Teenagers today believe that they are "invisible" and that they will never get hurt or hurt others by texting and driving.

Rebecca Antony, MICDS

I'm trying to figure out the reasons why teenagers continue to do this through logical thinking, because I can't drive yet, and therefore don't yet know the pulls to texting while driving. Maybe, I'm thinking, they enter into a texting conversation before they get into their cars, and try to continue the interesting conversation while they're driving?

Maybe they think it's urgent--more urgent than the steering wheel in front of them that demands both hands and constant attention. Maybe, like much of the world's population, they just always think that bad situations happen to "other people," and they don't comprehend the chances that it might happen to them, too.

Molly Soto, St. Joseph's Academy

In this day and age, teenagers are so attached to their phones. I think part of the reason teenagers text and drive is because they cannot stand to wait to communicate with their friends until after they arrive to their destination. They are used to instant communication and it causes a near addiction to their phone.

Another reason is that teenagers are aware of the major risks connected with texting and driving but they do not think it will happen to them. Although this is a sad excuse, teenagers believe that if they can get away with texting and driving once then they can get away with it all the time.

I also think another reason for teenagers texting and driving is they consider it a rebellion. They are able to get away with something that is dangerous and against the law.

Isabell Stillman, John Burroughs

I think many high schoolers have been groomed to need to be connected; with all the technology around us, we have an almost instinctual feeling that we must be involved in what is going on with our friends at all times.

We also tend to feel invincible much of the time, and even though we have heard how dangerous it is to text and drive, we feel it could never happen to us. The need to be connected and the feeling that we are out of harm's way leads many teens to not even think about the warnings we have all heard against texting and driving.

Now use the comments section on the right side of the page and tell us what you think about the potential dangers of texting while driving.