Fans are furious!
Sometimes it can be easy to forget that the people involved in the Teen Mom are… well, real. They don’t just exist on a page or inside our TVs. No, they have lives that they live every single day. Especially with all the discussions of bad editing, or staged scenes, it’s easy to forget that we’re watching these people’s real lives. The truth is, they’re real, everyday people, and just like us, their actions have consequences in the real world.
It’s easy to let celebrities off the hook for behaviors that we might condone in friends or family. That said, the newest trend for the Teen Mom cast members has fans upset, and for good reason. They’re putting their lives, the lives of their children, and the lives of complete strangers at risk — not to mention that it’s breaking the law.
Credit: MTV
Risky Business
Credit: MTV
Through the years, we’ve watched the Teen Mom cast members make some high-stakes decisions in their life. Of course, that means we’ve watched them make some really bad decisions and, we’ve kept our mouths shut. But this one is putting them and their children at risk.
A huge amount of Teen Mom clips are filmed in the car. Even though all of the Moms are going through different experiences, they seem to all have one thing in common when they hit the streets: they just don’t put their phones away.
Although texting and driving is unfortunately becoming more common all over the country, it’s an incredibly dangerous act that is on par with drinking and driving. In fact, many states have taken action to criminalize texting and driving by imposing fees or even incarceration for repeat offenders. It’s even illegal in every state except for Montana, Arizona, and Missouri for drivers 21 years and younger. Even so, many of the Moms are still doing it — because they do it while the cameras are rolling! Sometimes, they even go as far as to use Facetime while driving, holding the phone in one hand while they distractedly drive with the other.
Aside from being incredibly dangerous for the cast and their children, it has some implications for MTV as well. Before or during many Teen Mom episodes, the network airs PSAs for various causes to protect against domestic abuse or addiction, depending on the contents of the episode. But they never seem to condemn the girls’ actions at all with any PSAs about distracted driving.