Driving While Stupid

Jamielle Silvia

ENGL 0250-154

H. Susi

November 20, 2011

Driving While Stupid by Dave Barry

Dave Barry’s humorous column “Driving While Stupid” is about people in Miami who basically drive like imbeciles. He explains one major story about a man who took his sun visor off and replaced it with some sort of video system. Barry explains this man was driving extremely fast and wasn’t paying any attention to the road at all, serving back and forth between five lanes. Barry has been to several states but he claims that Miami has the worst drivers by far.

I see people “driving while stupid” all the time. It seems to happen every single day and I cannot lie, I am sometimes a victim of this. Sometimes I catch myself changing CD’s not paying attention to the road. When I am in my car I love to listen to music and I play my radio louder than most people. Another thing is, I love to speed although it is dangerous and I know this, I have a need for speed. After an accident which helped me open my eyes I now taking driving more seriously and pay attention at all times. I still play my radio loud but I have gotten better about the speeding.

This issue has become very serious because people who are distracted while driving are more likely to be the people to cause a car accident or to get in one. It has become more common to see a person eating, talking on a cell, or worse texting. Almost every day I see a person eating in their car leaving themselves with only one hand on the wheel. I find this to be so dangerous. My sister thinks driving with her knee is okay and she does it all the time, it freaks me out. I have never once done it and I never plan to I would be too scared to not have at least one hand on the wheel.

            Many people do not take driving seriously when they should. I see all the time in bad weather people driving super fast when they should be driving the speed limit or less. More often now people text while driving, which has been the cause of many teens’ death or injuries. Little things like texting I feel can wait till you get to a destination or you are stopped somewhere. Most people do not realize that when they do these stupid things they could harm not only themselves but also an innocent person because of their stupid decisions

            I felt this essay was very funny but also focused on a serious issue. I love the way the author used his humor. I enjoyed reading this column because it just explains how serious driving is and people take it so lightly like it isn’t important. Are making some stupid decisions behind the wheel I started taking driving very seriously.

Cell Yell: Thanks for (Not) Sharing

Jamielle Silvia

ENGL 0250-154

H. Susi

November 13, 2011

Cell Yell: Thanks for (Not) Sharing

            Eric A. Taub’s essay Cell Yell: Thanks for (Not) Sharing is about people and their conversations being over heard when talking on their cell phones. There was also a website made on the phenomenon about cell phone manners called “cellmanners.com.” This is a website created for cell yell haters. The main story is about a man getting ready to take off on a plane that starts a very loud conversation about his business, distracting all the other passengers on the plane leaving them no choice but to listen. Cell yell is becoming more common as technology is growing and new cell phones are created.

            Timo Kopomaa a social scientist at University of Technology says “Cell phones are so small that people trust them not to work.” I find this to be true because I see it happen all the time. My grandmother got a track phone and she speaks very loud into it thinking she needs to for people to hear her. I see it happen more with old people who are not used to the new technology. I think people just need to trust technology because I do not think they would sell it if it didn’t work. Also I think older people are just used to big phones and phone booths while making phone calls.

            Many people cannot help themselves but to listen to someone who is speaking very loud while talking on the phone. It is almost like they want you to pay attention to their conversation making them seem important. I also think that some people do not even realize they are doing it because they do it all the time. I see it happen all the time at work when I am trying to take their order on the speaker they sit there and finish their conversation before ordering leaving us no choice but to listen. I cannot help but listen when this happens because it is almost like they want you to hear them.

            Texting on cell phones has become more popular than an actual conversation in a phone call. I know that I am a big fan of texting because I can be somewhere and have multiple conversations with more than one person. The only thing that stinks about texting is you cannot hear the expression in their voice. I also feel like texting is more private leaving no one to hear or know what you are talking about. Texting may not be used enough but I believe it is because people do not know how to text. My mom would not text at all because she didn’t know how, but now that she knows how she texts all the time.

            I felt this essay was very interesting because I did not know what “cell yell” was until after I read it. I have seen people speak louder than needed but never knew there was a name for it. It is not easy to ignore someone speaking for the whole world to hear and I can understand why a website has been made about it. I feel like I talk very softly when I am on the phone because I do not want people to hear me.