<\/a>Tiffanie Herron
\n<\/strong>MC Contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I was going to die,\u201d said Christopher Smiley.<\/p>\n

Smiley, a senior business administration major from Crystal Springs, Miss. saw his life flash before his eyes as the blinding headlights of an 18-wheeler truck drew closer towards him in the oncoming traffic lane. The semi blew its horn loudly and he immediately swerved his car over across the median and pulled over to the other side of the road. He took a deep breath and gathered himself. His heart was still pounding away madly from fright.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was scared as hell,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen I looked up, I was dead in the opposite lane of the truck. I wasn\u2019t in my lane any more. I tried to swerve over but it was raining and I couldn\u2019t see. I was too close coming up to him and I was going too fast. In my heart, I felt like I was going to die,\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the cause of Smiley\u2019s near death accident? Was it probably the sleekness of the slippery rain drenched highway? Or perhaps it was the rugged tires of his 2001 Toyota Camry? Neither, it was his Android smartphone. While he was driving down Highway 42 on his way to visit a friend, Smiley was also texting away on his phone. His attention constantly shifted from the road to his phone screen and back to the road again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I drive, I have one eye on my phone and one on the road,\u201d said Smiley. \u201cI merged over into the oncoming traffic lane by accident because I was looking at Facebook Messenger on my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiley isn\u2019t the only person who has succumbed to the temptation of the constant use of social media. According to an online study by DigitalInformationWorld.com, an estimated 2.3 billion people in the world are active social media users and spend an average of 17 minutes per day on a social media site.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause of the use of social media, we can\u2019t communicate civility. We as a society have forgotten simple civil discourse thanks to social media,\u201d said Marshall Ramsey, editorial cartoonist for The Clarion Ledger who also teaches a social media class at the Jackson State University. \u201cIt has also made our attention span a whole lot shorter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students at Jackson State have felt the sting of social media having a negative effect on their lives. Some professors have a strict no cellphone or no electronic gadget policy which states that the use of social media while in class will result in expulsion from class for that day. Many students have been kicked out of class because they failed to pay attention to the professor\u2019s lectures and felt the need to pay more attention to who liked their pictures on Facebook or followed them on Instagram on their phones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got caught using my phone in my criminology class once,\u201d said Andrew Kelly Jr., a criminal justice major from Bolton, Miss. \u201cI was scrolling down my Instagram page when my teacher caught me and kicked me out of class for the day. I missed an entire class worth of notes and did poorly on my next test all because of my phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neil Vidyarthi, in an interview for Social Times, an online publication covering social media said, \u201cTo fight social media addiction people should limit themselves to knowing that they can have only one to two hours per day to use social media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smiley has learned his lesson after his near fatal wreck.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m addicted to social media, so to stop my addiction I\u2019ve decided to delete some social media apps off my phone like Facebook so I can get back in touch with reality,\u201d said Smiley. \u201cI\u2019m also trying to keep my eyes off my phone when they are supposed to be on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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