U.s. Teens Send 100 Texts A Day Third of phone owning U.S. teens send 100 texts a day

[salamangkero 0]

I am not sure if it is appropriate for me to post a response since I happen to be a non-American non-teenager who, like linekill, happens to live in the (self-proclaimed) texting capital of the world but this seems like a free forum so allow me to share my opinions on the subject.

 

For one, I have observed that a lot of posts have rather vilified SMS technology, even associating it to Columbine and Virginia Tech massacres without basis. Text messaging has been blamed for the deterioration of grammar skills and some have painted a grim slippery slope scenario where humans will no longer be capable of face-to-face interaction. There were even a few wild speculations that there are absolutely no substance to these SMS messages.

 

I think, however, that things are not as bad as they seem. For instance, texting is a cheaper form of communication than phone calls or email. I really believe that, in some instances, instead of the morbid breakdown of social relationships conveniently floated in the above posts, text messaging helps bring people together. Families here who have parents or siblings working in faraway areas (such as different provinces) find it very convenient to be able to message their loved ones for a very inexpensive amount. Students, who have no stable source of income, find it easier to budget their allowances when they communicate with their friends via text messaging. Also, it's not as if all text messages are like typical Budweiser "Whazzuuu~p?!?" commercials.

 

Some have also (without basis) pointed out that students who texted a lot usually don't do well in school. I beg to differ; without SMS messages, I would NOT have graduated college. Ever thought of the convenience of broadcasting to your classmates the location of the next play rehearsal? How about asking one of your team members to please, please, please stop by a convenience store to buy isotonic water for your chemistry project because you found out that the guy who was supposed to bring it took a sick leave? In a large university, where classmates are not necessarily friends, haven't you texted your friends to borrow bus fare when your wallet got swiped at the cafeteria? Didn't you find it convenient when your professor texted you the next venue for your outdoor class? Or when the instructor thoughtfully messaged you that your exams have been postponed? Or the announcement that classes are cancelled due to a storm or political rally? Imagine the time you would have needlessly wasted without SMS messages!

 

A lot of people blame texting for the fact that other people have terrible spelling, punctuation and grammar skills. I find this to be a wild exaggeration because, in our country, all our professionals have been exposed to lots of text messages. Oh, of course, we still have our share of idiots who tYp3 LyK d!s but we usually attribute these faults on the person, not on the technology. That would be as foolish as claiming lighter fluids give rise to arsonists and kitchen knives inspire a spate of murders.

 

I sincerely exhort us all to think more on the matter before recklessly blaming a useful technology for problems that may, after all, be human in nature

[deadmad7 4]

sorry. this will be a one line post. "WELL SAID!" i agree 100%

Yes, I couldn't have said it better in a page long post either. Sometimes its better to agree

[Running With Scissors 0]

I do about 15,000 a month. Yeah thats a lot. But you can't call more then one person at a time. So thats why I text. Its not like thats what I do all day either. I do year round sports and I've been the best on my team since 9th grade and I'm getting partial scholarships to colleges. So its not like all I do is sit around and text. Texting is a easy way to talk to people when your not by them.

Edited April 22, 2010 by Running With Scissors (see edit history)

[mandla 0]

soon we wont need to wait till new years eve to have a meltdown on the texts we will just have to live with delayed messages. it probably is true that kids are texting each other like crazy because in UK the doctors actually have a texting disorder name here. In the papers about 2 years back were stories of teens who are text-aholics and they were saying the mobile phone companies need to limit the amount people can spend on texting because kids at 13 -17 were wrecking up bills of 300pounds a month and the itemised billing was just texts and they were saying the phone companies would be responsible if the text a holic problem spread so instead the companies introduced plans like 30 pounds for 600 minutes and unlimited texts. or 50 pounds a month for an iphone 1000 minutes unlimited texts, even pay as you go mobiles are like topup 10pouns in a 30 day perios and get 300 free texts and your 10 pounds worth of calls. this only stopped people complaining of the high bills but the problem is still going on. everywhere you look teens are texting. even when you hear them calling each other they are like were are you. we waiting in town , yeah yeah yeah, ok just give me a text when you get here and i'll txt you back. No ones like yeah call me. its like text me text me. whats worse is that education system is suffering too cause the kids are text writting in class and the teachers have been told to relax on being strict on spelling coz kids cants spell proper they txt spell like cum for come and cant tell difference between their, there, they're bacause in text you can get away wit there and the other person will understand. its like each person txts different but the messgae still gets across and so txting is mlike learning multiple languages. No one the kids get addidcted to it. they learn more languages and grammar from texting than from their who life in school

[anwiii 17]

I do about 15,000 a month. Yeah thats a lot. But you can't call more then one person at a time. So thats why I text. Its not like thats what I do all day either. I do year round sports and I've been the best on my team since 9th grade and I'm getting partial scholarships to colleges. So its not like all I do is sit around and text. Texting is a easy way to talk to people when your not by them.

how can you say that's not all you do. 15,000 a month? that's 1 text ever 3 minutes and that included texting in your sleep. if we say you get 6 hours sleep, a day, then basically you text once ever two minutes. when someone spends you spend more time texting than you do sleeping or any other 1 activity. sorry, but that is just WAY too much and it is controlling your life. when i heard 10,000 a month from someone, that seemed excessive.

and the 1 every two minutes doesn't account for school or sports. when all is said and done, you really only have about 10 hours a day where you can actually text. that accounts for 1 every minute and 10 seconds approximately. so lets say it takes half that time to read and send messages. basically, you have about 30 second break time in between sends for 10 hours every day.

i am sorry. that seems like an addiction to me. granted...the weekends are different...but boy oh boy!

[Running With Scissors 0]

how can you say that's not all you do. 15,000 a month? that's 1 text ever 3 minutes and that included texting in your sleep. if we say you get 6 hours sleep, a day, then basically you text once ever two minutes. when someone spends you spend more time texting than you do sleeping or any other 1 activity. sorry, but that is just WAY too much and it is controlling your life. when i heard 10,000 a month from someone, that seemed excessive.
and the 1 every two minutes doesn't account for school or sports. when all is said and done, you really only have about 10 hours a day where you can actually text. that accounts for 1 every minute and 10 seconds approximately. so lets say it takes half that time to read and send messages. basically, you have about 30 second break time in between sends for 10 hours every day.

i am sorry. that seems like an addiction to me. granted...the weekends are different...but boy oh boy!

wow lol i didn't do the math but I swear thats true. I max at 18,000 one month. I run xc in the fall (made states) Swim in the winter (2nd at states) Track in the spring (we will see haha) I also have a job now life guarding...haha i dont even get how I get to 15,000. I'll look at my amount on this months bill. I know I text a lot but if you math is correct that doesn't seem possible.

[anwiii 17]

i've had cell phones, but i never texted before. do the figures included incoming and outgoing?i've tried to text on someone elses phone before. took me a minute to write one line of text. it's worse than typing on a keyboard haha

[andresf91 0]

Sorry man, how long does your phone's keypad last before you can't see the numbers and letters printed on it?I'm writing about 200 txts a month at max, and after almost two years, the keypad is kind of blur, particularly on keys 1, 2 and 3. That means that I have written at maximum 4500 texts with this cellphone.If you write that in 9 days, how often do you buy a new phone???

[H.O.D 0]

there's competition in this area as well? i text around 4000 msgs per month and i spend Rs.50 (a little more than $1) per month to get a 5k sms pack. i dunno how i end up using so many smses - and i honestly have no idea what i text about - it just happens unknowingly. sometimes the conversations carry on well into the night and in an hour 100 msgs can easily be sent! i guess this is an addiction that has to be fought just like the other addictions. talking and meeting in real life is obviously more fun but this is more convenient as the people can't stay with us all the time. i have some friends with whom im on good terms only through text. when we get a chance to talk we dont talk to each other much! now that's a weird habit but its true - and we feel comfortable with more texts than talks!!

[Spyda 0]

Texting is pretty nice, especialy when you need to tell somebody something and don't feel like calling them or whatever. The only thing is though, there are just some things that you cannot say over text messages or if you do say them they won't come out the right way. An instance of this would be something like sarcasm where in life people might know you are being sarcastic while people over texts may not.

[anwiii 17]

Texting is pretty nice, especialy when you need to tell somebody something and don't feel like calling them or whatever. The only thing is though, there are just some things that you cannot say over text messages or if you do say them they won't come out the right way. An instance of this would be something like sarcasm where in life people might know you are being sarcastic while people over texts may not.

that's a very good point. internet communication used to be the exact same way and still is today. for some people it's hard to pick up those little gestures of sarcasm or teasing that they'd get if it were face to face or even on the phone. the communication is limited.

[web_designer 7]

Texting is pretty nice, especialy when you need to tell somebody something and don't feel like calling them or whatever. The only thing is though, there are just some things that you cannot say over text messages or if you do say them they won't come out the right way. An instance of this would be something like sarcasm where in life people might know you are being sarcastic while people over texts may not.

that is extremely right for me, i am one of those who you are talking on them. if i was angry from someone or i like to tease him, i never called him. i keep on sending him messages. it is very useful if you are angry from someone close to you, and you know that you will hurt him if you talked to him, so sms the great alternative for that.

once, i remember that someone special to me forget a very important occasion in my life and i want to remember him indirectly, so i was keeping send him sms like " remember??" or "really can't you?" or "forget it" and it really worked. sms are funny, fast and beautiful way to communicate.

[H.O.D 0]

that is extremely right for me, i am one of those who you are talking on them. if i was angry from someone or i like to tease him, i never called him. i keep on sending him messages. it is very useful if you are angry from someone close to you, and you know that you will hurt him if you talked to him, so sms the great alternative for that.
once, i remember that someone special to me forget a very important occasion in my life and i want to remember him indirectly, so i was keeping send him sms like " remember??" or "really can't you?" or "forget it" and it really worked. sms are funny, fast and beautiful way to communicate.

sms is a great way to have fun whenever one gets bored and these pranks are a good way to kill time, and for one 'prank session' at least 20-30 msgs can be used up soon. no wonder thousands of messages are sent every month by a single person who enjoys such things. in the long term it's not a healthy habit, but for now i don't think this is such a big deal if the people have a life out of texting too if they learn to balance it out then there's no harm in it. eventually they'll "grow up" and reduce the texts and focus on calls and real-life meetings

[anwiii 17]

eventually they'll "grow up" and reduce the texts and focus on calls and real-life meetings

i don't agree with that at all. technology is always changing to make people more lazy and unconfrontationable(if i just made up that word, good for me! hahaha)

first there was person to person contact
then there was the telegraph
then there was phones
then there were fax machines
then there was computers
then there were emails
then there were cell phones
then there were text messaging on cell phones.

ummmm am i the only idiot that recognizes a pattern here? just looking at the history, i can think of 1 or two more ways to make people more lazy and without the responsibilities of actually going out of the house and communicating. it's getting bad. and not just with communication. look how much time difference there was between the telegraph and phones being invented. then compare that to computers and text messaging.

best form of communication is in person or on the phone but we don't want to be bothered by any of that in general because we have the technology to talk to 100 people at a time all across the world. yea....lets get all the kiddies on the bandwagon because that's our future. but when it comes to communicating the old fashioned way, they will just be lost in a void wondering how time flies and they really didn't accomplish anything.

well, it's sad. that's all i have to say....because i see the history and from the history, i can predict the future of communication. and the need to respond to a message that is a language of it's own. i'm not saying technology is bad. what i AM saying is that people use it like they NEED it. they use it excessively and will never know the benefits of being more personable because they only see technology. they don't see life.

if edison was here today, he'd be flipping the light switch up and down....fascinated by what he accomplished but not really understanding anything at all. we have people in their 60's and 70's that don't even know how to set the timer on a vcr or dvd player. forget about setting a record time. they used to go out in public and watch a flick at the move theatre or instead of watching t.v. by themselves while eating a meal, they were inviting friends over to watch it with them.

yea, technology makes use of more interaction.....but less personal. we can live and die not knowing the faces or the voice to a message on a screen

you know what my theory is? the more people text, the less friends they have and don't want to be bothered by a phone call or a face to face meeting. it would be just too much out of their own day to give so much time to a friend. that's what technology does. i for one would rather spend time personally with friends rather than text 100 times a day to acquaintances. and if i was any of your parents, i would be throwing your phone in the trash and make you go outside and not come back until it was dark. you youngins who take advantage of technology don't even know what you're missin'. all forms of communication comes from within closed doors now and all you will really end up being is vampires.....after being told to go to bed, only to pretend and text one more message......

[H.O.D 0]

that was a thoughtful reply anwiii. your talk about history made me think about the future, especially the one shown in Wall-E. The humans in that movie were habituated to sitting all day and all their communication took place with the help of machines, even though they were just a few meters away from each other! Maybe the next step of laziness is precisely that!

you know what my theory is? the more people text, the less friends they have and don't want to be bothered by a phone call or a face to face meeting.

maybe that makes a good point - when someone i don't know too well calls me i do sometimes get the urge not to pick up. but that doesn't happen when the same person(s) with whom i share 50-100msgs a day calls unexpectedly. so maybe that theory changes from person-to-person but it makes a good point anyway. we really need to communicate much better, otherwise one day we might just forget how to speak to another person anymore with our mouths!