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Cell Phone

File this one in the applied common sense department. Cell phones are a distraction while driving.

Obvious enough. If you’re “chatting” with your inlaws, while programming your Magellan and changing the track on your audiobook version of the latest Grisham novel, all the while trying to switch lanes on the Interstate, some part of that is going to get neglected.

What you might not know is that if the person in the passenger seat is the screaming about that weekend’s quality time with the folks, it could be just as dangerous to your driving.


Carnegie Mellon

A Carnegie Mellon study shows that just listening in on a cell-phone conversation that someone in the passenger seat is having can decrease your concentration by 36%. Whether you know it or not, your brain really likes processing “yes / no” style questions. It doesn’t matter whether you’re engaging in conversation or just listening, it’s all the same to that wonderful gray matter of yours.

The lesson?

If you’re in a car, try to put that cell phone away. Secondary lesson for the New Media crowd, this is probably a bad idea.

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