A Deadly Wandering

In 2012, Dr. Atchley is working in the field of neuroeconomics, which determines the value of behavior based on monetary measures. He discovers that the value of a text drops sharply after a very short period of time—texts rely on immediate reception and response. However, Atchley also discovers marked differences between a young person’s relationship with texting and an alcoholic’s relationship with booze: Unlike addicts, texters are willing to wait to receive a text. Texting appears to be a compulsion rather than an addiction.

In one of Dr. Atchley experiments, a young woman named Maggie sits at a driving simulator at the University of Kansas lab. She simulates driving to a party while a researcher texts her. Afterward, when asked what she remembers, she recalls the names of the fictional partygoers she was texting about but almost nothing of the actual drive.

Terryl’s children are academically gifted. Her daughter wins a state academic competition and her son wants to be a neurosurgeon. One decision Terryl made when her children were very young was to cut their cable service because she sees television as a distraction.

Scientific studies show that television plays to our attention in extraordinary ways. Like smartphones, it is able to simultaneously harness both our top-down and bottom-up attention. A 2009 study concluded, “evidence is growing that very early exposure to television is associated with negative developmental outcomes” (176). 

Reggie’s attorney talks to church leaders in June, assuring them that he is capable of going on a mission. Police investigators have found nothing to indicate Reggie might’ve been at fault in the accident.

Scott Singleton, the new lead investigator on the case, is attempting to hunt down whom Reggie was texting during the accident. After a series of frustrating phone calls, he learns that Reggie was texting Briana Bishop’s phone. Singleton arranges a meeting with her, and Briana calls Reggie before she goes.

Singleton and Briana meet and go back and forth. Briana insists that she believes that Reggie only texted her once that morning, well before the accident.

Reggie gets a call from his local bishop to tell him he’s going on his mission to Canada after all, and he is overjoyed.

Agents Singleton and Olson show up at the warehouse where Briana works and question her again. While she admits that she might’ve been mistaken about how many texts she and Reggie exchanged and when, she does not offer the agents the “smoking gun” they are looking for.