Distracted Driving

Christine DeRienzo                                                                 Investigative Activity #2

Distracted Driving

            I chose to try the distracted driving activity for my second investigation.  Texting and driving is something I do not do.  I don’t even like making phone calls while I am driving because that also takes your attention from the task at hand, which is driving the car.  I found the simulator to be quite frustrating.  Typing on a phone keyboard is quite a bit different than clicking the mouse on the letters to answer the questions.  I think a better way to design it would have been if the user had the ability to type in the answers on the keyboard, not pushing the keys with the mouse.  Once I got the hang of clicking the letters with the mouse, I found it took me way, way too long to just read the questions that I had to respond to.  I had missed two gates before I had even read the question.

            My results were extremely terrible in this simulator.  They were even worse than the averages that were shown.  I knew that I was not doing well, but what a surprise.  I didn’t think it was as bad as it was.  I can’t imagine any good time to text and drive.  If something is that important, pull over and then send your text message. 

            It is very scary to me when I am driving to work in the morning and see many people texting while they are driving.  This is on the freeway going 70 miles per hour.  At that speed, by the time a person reacts to something, it would be too late.  The distraction could be a box in the road, an animal, or even a child.  The consequences could be devastating for the driver and anyone else who may be the innocent victim of a person who texts and drives.  I’ve also witnessed many people typing into their GPS while they are driving.  I just shake my head and wonder what they are thinking.

             According to an article published by CBS News in 2009, nearly 5,500 people died and half a million were injured in crashes involving a distracted driver, according to figures from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  Statistics like these make you wonder why anyone would even consider texting, or doing anything else that would distract you, while driving. 

Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/05/travel/main20115923.shtml

My Coffee Shop Activity

Christine DeRienzo

Coffee Shop Activity

            I decided to choose the coffee shop activity for this assignment.  I shared my choice with my husband who questioned why on earth I would choose this for the assignment, but I was intrigued to see what would happen. 

            I decided to go to Panera and have a muffin and some coffee.  I chose a seat where I could easily see all around the restaurant.  I took my school bag with me with some papers to grade.  Once I sat down, I put my papers on the table and my pen in my hand.  I chose to focus on a woman who looked to be about my age.  I noticed that she was eating a bread bowl soup and some kind of sandwich.  I was not directly behind her, but kind of off to the side.  It was a bit weird to just sit there and stare at someone eating their lunch.  It made me feel kind of uncomfortable. 

            The woman I was looking at did not notice that I was watching her for quite a long time.  She was eating with someone else, and it was the other person who called her attention to me.  Her companion kind of pointed in my direction and I could see her asking the woman if she knew me.  The woman turned in my direction and then back to her friend and must have told her she didn’t know me.

            Of course, I continued to stare at her, which after I knew she knew I was watching, made me even more uncomfortable.  Her friend again said something to her about me watching her and the woman once again looked over at me.  This time I put my pen to my temple like I was thinking and kind of looked around.  I did not like the feeling at all.

            But, I decided to give it one more try.  I again began staring at her.  This time, when I saw her friend watching me, I started looking at the papers I had on the table from school.  I could no longer stand the weird, creepy feeling I had.  I felt like I was doing something wrong by staring at this woman.

            I felt okay doing this experiment until I knew I was making the lady and her friend uncomfortable.  The woman’s friend looked like she was getting rather annoyed with me staring and I did not want to have a problem.  This experiment provided me with a lot of strange emotions that I had never really experienced.  This is not something I will be trying again any time soon.