March 20th, 2008
Text Me Baby, One More Time
I’ll confess that I text on my cell phone. Last month, 900 text messages went to and from my cell phone. After my divorce, I became acquainted with a whole new world of text messaging. I’ve used text messages to notify clients of an upcoming meeting, to let my daughter know I’ll stop by the store, and for the airline to notify me of gate changes. And yes, I’ll admit, text messaging has been used in the romance department….to firm up dinner plans….and for a little bit of naughty foreplay.
Text messaging is handy. I’ve found it incredibly useful. And on occasion, I have discovered that it’s less embarrassing to text something really raw and honest…..saying it via text comes easier than saying it face to face (men can be incredibly scary at times - LOL). But I am not opposed to picking up the phone and talking. I use my phone for texting enough that I can typically text a reply to someone without having to look. To me, the amount of my text messaging is on the excessive side.
That was, until I talked to my sister. Last month, my 13-year-old niece participated in 20,000 text messages.
Yep, you read that right. Twenty-Thousand. And I say participated in because that included both incoming and outgoing. I was astounded. I simply HAD to do the math. If the child never slept, it equates out to 27 texts per hour. I called my sister back and told her that I couldn’t not do the math. Curiosity was killing me. When she told me that she wasn’t allowed to text message during class, and she had to turn her phone off at 10 PM.
I recalculated. On the weekends, I figured she slept about eight hours, giving her 16 hours to text and on school days, she had 8 hours per day to text. With those numbers in mind, it came down to about 66 texts per hour. Wow. That is more than one per minute. My sister didn’t want to know further calculations, she just told me she was just glad they had an unlimited texting plan….
In discussions with a friend of mine that is a high school guidance counselor, though, we began to wonder if the advent in technology…and the use of texting and instant messaging was leading to a generation that is unable to carry on a conversation. She has seen groups of teens at the mall…together…but not talking to each other - instead, they are texting. I wonder, too, about the development of their other communication skills. If conversation is a struggle, what about writing? Has the shorthand used in text messages crept so heavily into their world that they are unable to write using regular grammar?
I don’t know the answer to these questions…but I think the next time I am tempted to text, I may simply dial instead…..
I was amazed.
