The second half of the 20th century has brought us many benefits, chief of which is a considerable improvement in the standard of living for ordinary people everywhere. Although poverty, privation, malnutrition and poor health are widespread and affect countless millions, the lot of millions more is better than it ever was in all of our history.

The nature of work has changed enormously-fewer people are engaged in bashing metal and screwing pieces of it together. Fewer till the soil, harvest the crops and process them into food and feedstocks for industry. Instead, most of us nowadays work with information -gathering, manipulating, distributing and storing it, using increasingly sophisticated electronic equipment.

The nature of leisure, too, has been transformed enormously. When my generation were children, we played with bats and balls, toy dolls and trucks, kites and skates, jacks and marbles and ran around outside burning off the food we vacuumed up as quickly as our mothers placed it before us. Today’s youngsters, on the other hand, play with electronic gizmos of all descriptions, and those whose parents can afford it spend hours in front of the computer.

But leisure devices are so cheap that even relatively poor people have MP3 players, CD changers and DVD boxes hooked to their television sets. The problem here is that instead of exercising, children and adults spend far too much time sitting instead of moving around vigorously.

While work these days may be more interesting and less taxing on the body, there is a serious downside. It’s called ’multitasking’. Instead of concentrating on one thing at a time, today’s worker has to deal simultaneously with several things, constantly shifting between computer windows to address each task at the same time as dealing with customers on the phone while sharing information with neighbouring co-workers.

Women say they have always been multitasking-looking after the infant, doing the laundry, keeping an eye on the supper on the stove while supervising the older children who are supposed to be doing their homework.

Now, combine this attitude towards work with the multiple distractions available to us for play, and what do you get? A mad rush to get through the day which has become several hours too short, then end up frustrated, unsatisfied and totally fatigued.

The Canadian province of Ontario has become the latest jurisdiction to try to tackle one of the most dangerous examples of this modern habit. Last Monday was the first day of new regulations which make it illegal to use a hand-held cellphone, personal digital device such as the BlackBerry, MP3 player or GPS tracking system while operating a motor vehicle. The police have been out on streets, roads and highways across the vast province on a campaign to educate drivers about the law until next February, when they’ll begin issuing tickets with hefty fines and even the possibility of demerit points.

You’d be surprised at the number of otherwise intelligent people who can’t seem to get it that driving is an activity which requires total attention especially with today’s sophisticated cars which can run much faster than before on today’s increasingly busy roads.

The cellphone, PDA and even the old car radio are not the only things which can distract a driver. A retired sergeant with the Ontario Provincial Police who now does regular traffic spots for a television station used to give reporters lists of stupid things he saw while patrolling one of the province’s busiest super-highways. In one case, he pulled over a man in a pick-up truck eating a huge sandwich while using the backs of his hands to steer the vehicle while exceeding the 100 km/h speed limit by more than thirty kilometres an hour.

One woman was driving her sporty little car in and out of traffic well above the speed limit while putting on make-up, sipping a take-out coffee and munching on a muffin. A man was changing his clothes while his little son held the wheel, while another was sending a text message on his BlackBerry while drinking coffee and opening his mail.

While some of these incidents may seem a trifle humorous, the potential results are by no means funny.

Serious injury, extensive damage and even death can be the outcome.

Apart from the intuitive understanding that using a phone or hand-held device which requires you to look at it in order for it to work while navigating a busy city intersection or an unfamiliar country road, there are numerous studies showing just how seriously this can affect your driving. Some experts warn that hands-free chatting is the same as using a phone in your hand or scrunched up between your shoulder and your ear. It’s the mental split between the two tasks that causes the trouble, they say.

There was another recent related example of two airline pilots in the US who considerably overshot their destination because they were discussing work schedules while checking them on their laptop computers and didn’t hear air traffic controllers calling.

The new law in Ontario means nine out of Canada’s ten provinces will by next year have legislation to curb the use of hand-held devices while driving.

It remains to be seen what kind of dent this will make in distracted driving.

-Courtesy Jamaica Observer