Nobody in my family ever wore a seat belt when I was growing up. I exhibited some interest in using them of the typical curious little kid "gee what are these funny things for" variety for about a week. In fact my parents once owned a Ford LTD that they bought from a neighbor, who had completely disabled the seat belt warning system. (According to the car's manual, the alarm would go off if you had a heavy package in the passenger seat. The suggested remedy was to fasten the belt around the package.) But then when I was about 15 or so NC passed mandatory seat belt laws and we all started wearing them.
As to needing the belts--you may recall
my encounter with a deer on I-81 in Virginia last summer. I also had a run-in in 1997 with a guy who made a left turn in front of me when he shouldn't have, which resulted in me hitting the front passenger's side of his car. In both cases I would have almost certainly slammed into the steering wheel, and in 1997 probably the windshield, without the seatbelts.