R U an Idiot?

Driving home from Athens on 316 last Friday afternoon, I was traveling in a pod of speeders, all going slightly over 70 mph, sticking together in a group so that, maybe “the other guy will get the ticket.”
Most of the drivers appeared to be UGA students, going home to Gwinnett, Cobb, Fulton, and other counties for the weekend. Young men in ball caps driving 4-wheel-drive pick-up trucks, SUVs or Jeeps…Young women, sunroofs open, hair blowing in the wind, driving sporty little cars or sporty little SUVs…The common theme was the UGA and Bulldog paraphernalia all over the vehicle.

The other common theme – and, this theme included me - was that we were all doing something else while we were driving - talking on a cell, fiddling with the radio, texting…This while traveling at high speeds, performing an elaborate ballet of lane changes, passing and tail-gating, vying amongst ourselves for who would “get there” first and fastest. This, folks, is very dangerous.

According to an article in the February, 2009 issue of Oprah magazine, entitled “Text at Your Own Risk,” 77% of the respondents to a recent survey said they’d texted while driving. 16% had texted during a funeral (Lord have mercy) and 11 % admitted to texting “during a romantic interlude.” Good Lord! As a society, what have we come to?

In this same article, a neuroscientist named Rene Marois, PhD, was quoted as saying, “The human brain has a crippling inability to do two things at once,” despite our brains using some “100 billion neurons to process information at rates as high as 1,000 times a second.” The article went on to state that a recent British study found texting while driving “slows reaction time more than being drunk or high.”

And, there we all were, sailing down 316 at speeds of 70-75 mph, happily texting away, as if this behavior is sustainable. I can say, based on 5 years experience as an ER social worker, this behavior is not sustainable. Wrecks happen, and when they do, way too many of them are devastating. So, what form of lunacy has me participating in this particular form of road idiocy? Based on my “5 years experience as an ER social worker,” I should know better.

Along the same lines, but a little lighter and more amusing, I listened to an NPR podcast the other day. It was “WNYC on Demand” - “Radio Lab” was the show. The topic was “Choice,” and, like the article in Oprah, it made our minds sound pretty feeble.

They were talking about memory tests conducted by a psychologist named Miller in the 1950’s and they referred to the “Magic # 7, plus or minus 2.” Apparently, the average human mind can only hold 7 digits, plus or minus 2, which is why all of our significant numbers like social security, birth date and phone numbers, are around 7 digits, plus or minus 2.

According to Dr. Miller’s research, the brain is anatomically organized into two systems – the rational brain and the emotional brain. These two brain systems are often at war, but the thing that really pushes them over the edge is a tough choice. Rational brain can pretty much hold its own until it has too much to handle, which in the case of our brains, is something as minor as trying to remember 7 digits while making a choice.

In a classic, and often repeated study, Dr. Miller gave subjects a number to remember - some had only 2 digits, others had as many as 7. The subjects received the number in Room #1. They were to memorize it, go to Room #2, and recite it. Easy enough, right? But, on the way to Room #2, a twist occurred.

The study subjects were approached by a friendly young woman offering them either a “big, fat, juicy slice of chocolate cake,” or a “nice, healthy bowl of fruit salad” as a reward for taking part in the study.

It turns out, in an overwhelming number of cases, the people charged with remembering as many as 7 digits chose the chocolate cake, while those whose task was to remember only 2 or 3 digits chose the fruit plate.

Why? Because as Dr. Miller, and numerous others after him have found, it only takes 6 or 7 digits to mess up rational thinking in the human brain. Rational mind knows that fruit is better for you than chocolate cake – less carbs, less sugar, all in all much more healthy, and in general, a way better choice. But, if rational mind is kept busy remembering 7 or so digits, emotional mind can take over, and basically scream, “We want chocolate cake!”

What this all has to do with a pod of texting traffic traveling way too fast last Friday afternoon on 316? I’m not sure, except to say that we all, too often, fall to the temptation to do too much. It robs us of the pleasure of living moment to moment. It robs us of the safety of simply driving (even if it is too fast…) It robs us of the ability to choose the fruit plate over the chocolate cake…Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of chocolate cake, but maybe even it is best enjoyed without cell phone to text on in hand...