Do you know any idiots who play Angry birds and drive?

So um, yeah, I have a confession to make. Even though I've written dozens of stories about the dangers of cell phone use while driving or hell, even criticized Google's Project Glass on international television because it is a distraction, writing this post makes me face the music and my hypocritical ways.

British insurance company Ingenie released the results of a survey of 1,000 young drivers age 17-25 on Friday. It shows that smartphone apps are becoming an increasing distraction, and one of the biggest culprits is OMGPOP's Draw Something.

I admit in the early days of playing said game that I had trouble putting it down. A few times I played while driving (They weren't masterpieces, mind you, but the easy ones). Eighteen percent of these kids admit to doing it, too, with 17 percent saying they play another hit game, Angry Birds.

Even worse is Facebook, with one in three respondents saying they use the social networking site on the road. Still the king of behind-the-wheel distractions is the text message: 44 percent admit to sending one driving, while 62 percent read them.

"We're in the middle of a perfect storm, where the rapid growth of social media and mobile is creating a new breed of in-car distraction", Ingenie CEO Richard King says. "We're increasingly using smartphones to occupy ourselves during down time, but driving is an active pursuit and it really does need our full attention".

Young drivers don't deny that smartphone apps are a distraction. A full 58 percent say these apps cause today's youth behind the wheel to be even more distracted, showing that a lot of those using these apps know better (including myself, although I'm eight years older than these folks).

I guess it's time to put the phone down, eh?

Now I know the comments are going to fill with more flames than Hades, but before you hit that post comment riddle me this: how many of you have stayed perfectly non-distracted on the road? Many of us are surrounded by our gadgets, and live much of our lives online. I'm sorry but I'm not going to believe everyone's nose is clean on this one.

But, hey, think of it this way: at least it's limiting road rage, because we're too busy drawing "jlo."

Photo Credit: Arieliona/Shutterstock