If there’s one thing you should be paying attention to while driving, it’s not what that hilarious comedian on Twitter just tweeted or the interminable display of baby pictures flowing down your Facebook newsfeed. Nope. It’s that thing you’re guiding your massive hunk of metal along — the road. A new survey from State Farm says there are a lot of drivers out there distracted by the Internets who should be minding where they’re going instead.

In State Farm’s annual distracted driving survey (via TheCarConnection.com), 21% of drivers said they surfed the Web while driving, while 13% of those were updating their statuses on social networks behind the wheel.

We imagine that would go something like, “Hey, everyone. I’m driving and plink-plonking on my phone while I should be paying attention to that car stopped right in front of –” You get the point. It’s not a good idea.

Responses came from about 1,000 drivers 18 years and older . All of those also own cell phones and drive between one and 80 hours per week.

The results show that we should all be on the lookout for our fellow scatterbrained drivers, especially those 18-29 who were the worst offenders when it came to putzing around on on the Internet behind the wheel. About 48% of that age group use the Internet while driving, a sharp increase from the 29% who did in 2009.

They also update statuses plenty (30%), check their feeds (36%) and check email (43%) at rates that have us wagging our fingers in consternation.

The funny part of all of this is that among those surveyed, 72% are in favor of laws that outlaw texting and driving, and 45% believe there should be technology that would muck up a driver’s ability to use a cell phone behind the wheel.

Listen to what you’re saying, people: Doing anything behind the wheel other than keeping your eyes on the road and staying aware of the other cars around you is just a bad idea. No matter how badly you want to tweet that you finally saw a Hawaii license plate. Your fans can wait.

Survey: 21% Access The Web While Driving, 13% Update Their Status [TheCarConnection.com]

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