"Hang up the phone and drive," I scold as a black SUV stops in the middle of the road with a cellular phone firmly planted in the driver's ear. Traffic backs up behind me as I open my car door to see if the driver needs help. As I step out of my car, the SUV in front of me slowly turns left, crossing traffic as oncoming traffic honks and brakes - cell phone still in use. I glance back at the car behind me as the driver leans out the window shaking her head and offers, "It's hard to push the turn signal down while talking on the phone." We wryly smile as I nod and drive away frustrated.

The National Safety Counsel estimates people talking on cell phones cause at least 1.4 million crashes in the United States and 200,000 people crash while texting each year. These numbers equate to 28 percent of all crashes in the United States.

I believe modern technology often creates isolated, selfish, unhealthy, individualistic humans who disregard the breathing, healthy family and loving friends in front of them for the false, metallic, plastic world of, "being connected," and creates the feeling that one is so important that, "Someone might need to talk with me so I need to have my phone on."

For those who truly believe they can text or talk on a cell phone while driving, allow me to offer a few self-experiments. If you are a multi-tasker and believe you can successfully accomplish two tasks at one time, try this. If right-handed, move your right foot in a smooth counterclockwise circle and write the No. 3 repeatedly with your right hand. Can't do it? Try this. Type on your keyboard, "Life is great, I want to live and I need to quit talking and texting while driving," while explaining to your children what your family is having for dinner.

Both tasks require conscious attention. Humans can fully attend to one stimulus at a time - not two or more. Some can train themselves to accomplish two tasks at one time but neither task will have the full attention required for the task to be done to the best of one's ability. So, if your goal is to graze through life paying half-attention to the important people around you continue to text, phone and type while real people, important people ask for your focused attention. You will offer half your attention and become frustrated when they misinterpret your meaning while you text your friend about some insignificant movie or TV shows you just watched - what a waste!

My family took a motorcar vacation last week and traveled through three states in our excursion. My granddaughters, daughter and wife demanded my attention during our trip at different times while traveling the highways of the west as drivers texting and talking on cell phones slowly and sometimes abruptly merged into my driving lane. "Lookout Gramps, she's on her phone," my 5-year-old granddaughter yells as a white Honda almost rubs wheels with our car. I swerve left to avoid the collision as my granddaughter says, "That's dumb huh Gramps?" I respond a bit panicked with a flush face and white knuckles, "Yes Rory, that is dumb!" As the bumper sticker pronounces and I scream out the window of our SUV again, "Hang-up and Drive!"

If you drive while you text or talk on your cell phone, your driving performance equates to one who drinks five alcoholic drinks and still believes they can drive home. Many psychological experiments equate the affect of texting or talking on a cell phone while driving to that of a person who's consumed enough alcohol to feel, "buzzed." Cell phone driving is "buzzed" driving.

A case study is when one studies one individual in-depth and uses the information gleaned from that study to suggest all members of society operate in the same manner as the individual case studied. The frustration felt when one commits a driving infraction while talking or texting while driving might be considered an isolated incident heightened by one's frustration watching drivers do stupid things when using portable communication devices while driving - a case study. This is not the case.

Innumerable amounts of research and scientific experimentation clearly suggest a strong correlation between the use of texting, talking on a cell phone and the increase of automobile accidents. If you wish to crash your car, continue to talk and text while driving. Your wish will come true. If you love someone who talks or texts while driving, make them read this article. It might save their life.

What is technology doing to the children we raise? I have an interesting position. I work in an elementary school and am blessed to talk with many kids every day, and have a private psychotherapy practice where I see many kids daily. I continually hear the same complaint; "Mom (or dad) is on the computer all night and tells me to leave her alone." The computer has become a friend to many friendless parents. I often hear children tell me, "Mom gets mad when I interrupt her as she visits with friends on the computer," or "Mom says she needs her time to talk with her friends because she is stuck in this house and can't go out anymore."

Six and 7-year-old children get it. They struggle to find love, safety and kindness in a home where they feel emotional avoidance due to artificial parental attractiveness to a computer and the cyber-unknown person on the other end of the fiber optics. Kids state their loneliness and confusion of their parent's unwillingness to offer eye contact and personal, emotional, friendly, kind love to their child. This loneliness is hard for a young child to understand so they seek love elsewhere.

Parents often become frustrated and confused at a child's budding love for their teacher, counselor, principal, ex-spouse, friend's mom or neighbor. Children need to be loved. When a parent is too busy to show love to their child because they are emailing, Facebooking, MySpacing and Instant Messaging their friends, a child will search outside the family to find someone to support and love them.

Children are simple little animals. Children need to be loved and feel they are important. If you can offer a child love, they feel important. If other things in life are more important than your child, the child will look outside the family for love - simple. Support your children and allow them to feel important. Do not become a permissive parent but support your child and be active in their life (see my past column on disciplining a child).

Good parents are active in their children's life and talk to, read to, walk with and explore the world with their children. Put down the technology and really look at your world. Talk with the people in front of you and celebrate life.

Bill Rutherford is a psychotherapist, public speaker, elementary school counselor, adjunct college psychology instructor and executive chef, and owner of Rutherford Education Group. Please email him at [email protected].