Listen people, stop acting like your cell phone is an extra appendage. If you are operating a vehicle, put your phone down. I can’t count the number of times I’m almost hit because someone is nose deep in his or her cell phone. Why are text messages, tweets and/or Facebook posts more important than your life or the lives of others? Granted, I am a lover of social media and staying connected with friends and family; however, I can’t do that if I’m not alive or in jail because of involuntary manslaughter due to the fact that I made a poor choice in putting my cell phone above everything else. It makes me ill when I watch other people’s Snapchat stories and they’re snapchatting while driving! Cool, your song came on the radio. Cool, you’re driving home or back to your college town. Cool, your bffs are with you to go on a road trip. Guess what’s not cool? It’s not cool that “texting and driving makes a car crash up to 23 times more likely” to happen. Every time I see someone concentrating more on the selfie they’re taking than operating the moving car, I ensure my hand meets my horn (and toss around some strongly worded comments, too). Ladies and gentlemen, its simply not acceptable.

This generation has become so consumed with themselves that they forget there are people living amongst them. We fail at being proactive. Instead of apologizing to the person you rear-ended, pull your head out of your a** and care about someone other than yourself. Put the phone down so you can save your breath and the time of the individual whose day you just turned upside down. We fail at putting others before ourselves. We have to reply to the numerous text messages and e-mails versus focusing on getting to the destination safely. Believe it or not, it can wait! Driving is already dangerous because the majority of the people on the road shouldn’t have passed their driving test, but when you throw a distraction in the mix –– it’s fatal. We fail at using common sense. Maybe I’m just overly protective with my life, but I don’t understand how someone can make the rational choice to remove their eyes from the road to face plant themselves into their electronic device. Think before you act. Peel yourself away from all that’s going on in your life to focus on the goal –– getting from point A to point B safely!

There’s already enough stupidity in the world, lets not add to the mix. Trust me when I say you’re not as good at texting while driving as you think you are. We all make mistakes in life, but unfortunately using your phone behind the wheel isn’t a mistake –– it’s a choice. You’re choosing what’s going on in that tiny little screen over what’s happening right in front of you, literally.