Article 3 01/31/2010

Texting While Driving

Texting and driving has become one of the hottest topics when it comes to automobile laws. All across the nation, and I would guess across the world, there are accidents caused every day by a driver who was distracted by their phone and has been at fault in a crash. Because of these actions, there are thousands of people across our nation, and assumingly around the globe that are pushing to ban texting while driving. Currently, 19 states already prohibit texting while driving. Meanwhile, 23 more states currently have bills working their way through congress. This is truly a great idea, but is it realistic?

Personally I am a supporter of the texting ban, but I question the ability to enforce such a law. For example, there are states the prohibit automobile drivers between the ages of 16-18 from talking on their phones while driving, unless you are on the phone with their parents, or in an emergency situation. My question is how can a police driver tell if you’re on the phone with your parent(s) or just a friend? Similarly, banning texting seems like a great idea, but again, how would an officer know if I am sending a text message, or typing in an address in my GPS application on my iPhone? Although it is nearly impossible to police, the idea of passing this bill would be enough to deter drivers from texting, hoping that the threat of a penalty will be enough of a reason to limit texting while driving.

Along the same lines, it’s not just texting while driving that is causing the issues, its everything else we surround ourselves with in our vehicles that distract us. It’s the cup of coffee we can’t leave home without. It’s the burger and fries we just picked up from the drive through, and the newspaper that’s covering your steering wheel while driving 75mph down the interstate. The new texting ban is a start, but we need to some how police ourselves more than we need police to do it for us. Technology is completely absorbed into our lifestyles, but there are times when we need to set it down. Protect your life, and the lives of others, stop texting, and drive!

Original Site:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-01-24-texting_N.htm

Supporting Sites:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/01/29/cellphone.study/index.html

http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell/statistics.html

Article 2 01-24-2010

Kids and Media

Are kids now a days consuming too much media? The Kaiser Family Foundation came out with a study that monitored media consumption in the lives of todays kids between the ages of 8 to 18 years old. The results were astonishing; the average showed over 7.5 hours of media consumption daily. That’s just under 1/3 of every day. The study was so exact that it showed that the most consuming was done by the black and Hispanic “tweens.” The growth of media consumption is outrageous, up one hour from 2004. Will this type of growth continue?

Absolutely. This very article posed this same question years back, thinking that media consumption couldn’t possibly get any larger, but we proved them wrong. Media is all around us, most obviously on our t.v.’s, radios, and billboards, but now media is branching out to mobile apps on the new smart phones, youtube.com videos now host advertisement and every video played, Facebook pages have advertisement up and down each margin giving the consumer a double dose. With all this media surrounding us, teens included, does this have a positive or negative overall effect?

I believe it can have both. As the article points out, it’s like the consumption of our daily diets. If we consume healthy foods and drink nutritious liquids, we can produce a positive outcome. Meanwhile, the opposite is as equally possible. It is all in the hands of the consumer. I personally cannot see a change in this trend for years to come.

When I was in elementary school, our class would use the computer lab a total of two hours a week using programs to help our learning. Now, as a college student, I am consuming more than two hours of media before my first class begins every morning. And then once I do get to class, most of my professors start class with a PowerPoint presentation plastered with youtube clips that help illustrate their point, then for homework we are assigned to go online for research.

Media consumes our lives, young and old, and as more time passes, it will continue to trickle down to younger and younger consumers, but it’s not always a bad deal, if used correctly. The internet is an infinite atmosphere of knowledge and greatness, we just need to pilot out rocket ships around the harmfulness.

Original Site:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?ref=technology

Supporting Sites:

http://news14.com/charlotte-news-104-content/tech_talk/620930/study-finds-boom-in-media-use-among-youth

http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2006/10/finding-balance-in-teen-use-of-social-media293.html

Article 1

RCA's Airnergy Wi-Fi Powered Charger

The RCA electronics company is currently working on a device that pulls energy from a wireless hotspot, converts the energy into a DC current, which then charges the battery of this new device, which can later plug into your phone and charge it. This new revolutionary device is called the Airnergy, new from RCA.
Ironically, this concept is not new by any means, formally an idea of Tesla who was an inventor from the mid to late 1800’s to early 1900’s, but RCA has finally come up with a marketable product.
Although this product is amazing in thought, will it perform? RCA claims that the new Airnergy can charge 30% of a phones battery in roughly 90 minutes. This is not something that will replace your standard phone charger, yet. May mathematicians who have crunched the numbers are skeptical of this new device, some believe it will take years to charge a lap top, and maybe so, but I am extremely excited that we as a society are finally coming up with ways to harness energy that already exist! Who knows, maybe someday soon we will be able to charge our electric cars from the energy with the air that surrounds us! RCA claims that the rate at which the Airnergy can charge a battery largely depends upon how close you are to the hotspot deice, closer to the hotspot, the faster the charge.

I believe this new technology will be great for the average cell phone user. For example, take a UNC Charlotte student. Student X is on their phone for a majority of the day talking, texting, web browsing, and playing games. At the end of the day he or she is in the middle of an important phone conversation when the phone alerts them of a low battery. He or she can pull their Airnergy out of their pocket, plug it into their phone and then continue talking without being worried about a dead battery. Chances are the student will be able to talk for hours because their Airnergy is fully charged from being around Wi-Fi while they were in their dorm, in class, in the library, and while (s)he was having dinner at Crown Commons in the new student union!

This new device may not be the solution to all of our charging problems, but I believe it’s a stepping stone for what’s to come. And if it is truly going to be sold at around the $40 mark, I might have to buy one just to try it for myself!

Original Site:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-01/rca-airenergy-pulls-power-thin-air-charging-your-phone-wi-fi

Supporting Sites:

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2010/01/09/ces2010-rca-airnergy-charger-harvests-electricity-from-wifi/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMMbihbeIls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla