oh and she has on average 10 minutes or less of voice a month.

kids these days. i tells ya.

This girl has NOTHING on my lil sis who is 14
and send/recieves 8000 text a WEEK.

That's 36k+ texts a month.

Not on ATT, but still an unlimited text plan

.:whipes brow:.

I am 18 years old and I hate that my generation only wants to text message. I have never sent a text message and I get ridiculed for it. I got my first cell phone at 16 when I started for driving and it was a prepaid phone. As for school, I attended a small private school and for my senior year I was getting calls for work about every day during school. I got permission to answer as long as it was not during class but that was due to an understanding administration. It is clear that all the teens who love their phone don't use it for work. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten calls at 6 am on a Saturday or Sunday telling me that I am needed for work. With my college's policy, If the phone is heard during a test it is censored cheating and is an automatic zero.

@nakedscience: Some people definitely work better when multitasking. And a lot of the people who text or check their email while in class probably wouldn't have been totally riveted by the lecture if they didn't have their cellphone/PDA/laptop - they would have just doodled or daydreamed.

I think my point got muddled - by having all this new mobile connectivity, you never have to be bored. You never have to completely engage with something you're not interested in. And now I feel like an old fogey for saying this, but maybe there's something good about not always doing what you want or being stimulated by what you want. It's an eat-your-vegetables-they're-good-for-you kind of argument.

If you are always the master of deciding what you're engaged in, you never have to deal with things you don't like - or learn how to tolerate boredom, develop patience, understand another person's perspective.

I think text messaging is nice, because it's easier than communicating through voicemail. But when it becomes something that you're doing for hours straight while you're disregarding your teachers or bosses (or even worse, driving (yes, I've seen it happen)), it's time to put it away.

I rarely text anyone, but I do use up a fair amount of texts because of Twitter, but I only have mobile updates with the four users that I personally know. The other 99 I follow (celebrities, news aggregators, etc.), I only follow via computer.

teenage girls talk too much.

probably about NOTHING.

so if you have an unlimted txt play why make her stop texting after dinner? It's not costing you extra money and it's texting. It's not like she's out doing drugs.

would add up pretty fast

the buttons on her t9 keypad have more or less worn out.

And we're grandfathered in on that rate, might keep me with t-mob even after all our contracts expire.

When I want to contact someone, I e-mail them or call them. Or they call or e-mail me. I do have a texting plan, which is used primarily with my brother, since that is his primary method of communication.

I especially can't stand IM. I hate getting into conversations with 8 people at once and all of them being incredibly brainless (the conversations, not the people), yet they wind up taking hours because I can't figure out how to end them.

I look at it like being able to drop a post-it note on them where ever they are. "Please pick up Vodka, skittles and ammo on the way over. Thanks Mom"

Yes, of course, that makes sense. I divided her texts by 30 and 12 and got just over 40 text/hour. The poor girls fingers would be nubs!

Up until then I laughed at the commercials where the girl was doing like 3000+ messages thinking that was a lot!

I really don't understand the issue with text messaging so much. When older generations were in their teens, they talked on the phone a whole lot. It doesn't mean they have an inactive tangible social life, or that they're antisocial, just that they express their social behavior in different ways than parents. That said, everything should be taken in moderation and I think it's definitely right to say that kids who text message as much as this one need to be careful not to let it interfere with the rest of their lives. But, so long as there's not interference, I don't see a problem with it.

14,528 (messages)
divided by 30 (days) = 484.26 messages per day
divided by 16 (waking hours) = 30.26 messages per hour
60 (minutes per hour) divided by 30.26 (messages per hour) = one message every 1.98 minutes

I think you guys may have used 24 waking hours in your calc.

I can't wait to see the musculo-skeletal problems developed by persons who do this... We're essentially going to have an entire generation of persons with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

I would take her phone away, if I were her parent. That's just out of line and shows that she isn't spending enough time on her studies and haveing a life.

Last February, my middle daughter (15) hit a personal best of 21,400. And that was a 29 day month. Ever since I only glance. I don't study it.

Reina -- we know your googling your name too. Too bad your dad doesn't care about education. But you're setting your own destiny. You need to change your focus or you'll be in a low-paying job -- or in a dependant relationship, your entire life. Grow up soon.

@El_Fez: Wait - check that, I forgot to carry the 1 - that's more like one every 3 minutes.

It's still damn sloppy parenting. Someone needs to grow a pair and take away the phone.

My god, that's 10 message a minute - asuming that she doesnt sleep or go to school - around the clock, non stop for 24 hours.

Classic case of shitty parenting if I ever heard one.

www.apostropheabuse.com

Thank you, Ilo. People are being harsh on her when she doesn't seem like an idiot at all. She just likes texting. So? I spent an awful lot not paying attention to teachers, passing notes, etc. I mean what the heck, she's a teenager. As long as she's doing well in school, what is the harm?

I'd bet someone could tell all kinds of things about your life from a couple hundred word description from the New York Post...

I also meant that the parents that do not even try to understand technology are the ones that have kids that are the most obsessed with tech, aka the ones that won't take out the earbuds for a min or put the ipod down. These kids get the gadgets handed to them by the parent but the parent doesn't know anything about the item they are presenting to their kid. Yet the kid wishes that the parent would sit down with them and they could set up the item together and have fun with it together. But any attempts made by the kid to interact over electronics are shunned by "you know I don't understand that stuff, now play with your new toy".

If there is non-communication in the family due to too many electronics, then both sides are to fault, the parents and the kids. If your daughter texts too much how about picking up the phone and texting with her, or at least trying, especially if its on an unlimited type family plan. If your kid plays video games, pick up a controller and play with them, studies recently showed that over 49% of kids want their parents to play video games with them, but the parents are unwilling to. If you can get down to their level then you might be able to solve the non communication issue. The problem is that so many parents are unwilling to try.

I haven't encountered a family yet where kids hate their parents because they aren't getting the latest gadgets, although I am sure that type of family is out there as well.

@newdeepdan: Here is the answer to this question. Hold a text conversation with 10 other people. Whenever you text, text it to all 10. Imagine how many text messages you would recieve and send if you took a 1 hour conversation with 10 people and put it all in text. Wouldn't take long for you to get into the thousands of texts.

And if there's perception that the adults with iPods are playing with a toy, there's something wrong. The iPod is not a device for any particular age set. It's marketed to adults because generally adults have the money. Adult iPod owners shouldn't even care that there's a perception about their iPods.

I got my first cell phone when I was 15. kids are getting them younger and younger, and there are reasons..but in a lot of ways, parents should focus on building a network of trust with the parents of the kids who hang out together.

I remember tinkering with computers when I was a kid, and to my family it was kind of just a box that did a few things here and there (painfully old DOS machine) but I loved it, and I'd play all sorts of games on it. My parents didn't always understand what I was doing, but they knew I liked it, and knew enough to foster that kind of creativity.

If kids hate their parents because they aren't getting the latest gadgets, there's something a lot more disturbing about that family than the lack of electronics in the house. Not buying the latest gadget isn't abuse, and kids who see it that way clearly have growing up to do.

In 10 minutes:

- still grounded
+ sux

Exactly, David Brodbeck! These same people saying, "BUT BUT JUST CALLLLL THEM!" would get rightly pissed if I were to try to call someone while on the bus just to say, "HEY! Bus was late, I'm running about 20 minutes late, can you pick up some kitty litter?"

And sometimes having naughty text message conversations makes the work day go faster:P

squinko, I really don't think you know what anti-social means. Texting ain't it.

I;m old fashioned. I totally despice text messages, sending and receiving. I have only sent one since 2003. I hate that texting stuff so much that I asked ATT to disable that feature incoming/outgoing.

I know, most of you think I'm weird!

Just kidding. But seriously, how do you get ahold of people? Do you call them or do they e-mail you, or what. I talk to some of my friends by phone but for the most part, the phone is used to talk to Mr. Pi, my parents, and his parents. I rarely have 2 hour conversations just sitting on the couch on the phone.

Oh, and I am not advocating texting in class. You can't really text in class and pay attention. I agree that students shouldn't have cell phones at school.

Still, if it wasn't texting, it'd be something else -- anyone remember passing notes? Or daydreaming?

Teenagers are great at thinking of ways to not pay attention in class.

Also, talking on the phone in public is considered rude by many people in a way texting isn't -- especially on public transportation.

(WTF is up with the reply button? It was broken two days ago, it worked yesterday, and now it's broken again.)

Jesse, you type in complete sentences, eh? Because that was some mangled grammar there! :P

floraposte, Well, for me, if I'm just sitting there listening to a teacher yap, my brain wanders, and quickly. I start thinking about everything BUT the subject at hand. If I'm doodling or sketching, it's a little easier for me to control the daydreaming, because it keeps my fingers busy and I get a lot less fidgety

[www.examiner.com]

That was among the first I found when I googled "doodle in class"

"Researchers in Great Britain have found that doodling is an important tool to help retain information. When studying individuals who listened to a recorded message which included factual pieces of information such as names and places, researchers found that those who doodled while listening, remembered 29 percent more than those who did not."

Exactly, floraposte. It always kind of amuses me when people say, "BUT! How meaningful of a conversation can you be having over TEXT or IM or E-MAIL?! OH MY GOD! Talk to someone in person, have a meaningful conversation!"

Yeah, 'cuz people always have meaningful face-to-face conversations!

I find SMS messaging useful for one way messages (e.g., "Call me if you are doing anything tonight")if I don't want to bother someone but the back and forth messaging can get a little obnoxious.

However, I'm one of those people who still type in complete sentences with proper punctuation.

Also, "but shouldn't she be paying attention in school?!"

She's a teenager. If it wasn't texting, it'd be something else. I would write stories or doodle -- anything but pay attention to my teachers! I also read a LOT -- and got yelled at constantly for reading instead of paying attention.

And I hate when teachers yell at a student for doodling or sketching -- for some people, it helps them focus. If I had to just pay attention to a boring teacher without doing SOMETHING with my hands, I'd just daydream. Doodling at least kept my body occupied so I could listen.

Ha. Pretty much! Another thing I noticed is the parents who weren't there physically would hear how mean I was but weren't there to witness their little angel's behaviour. They believe anything that is texted to them. I called them cell phone parents because I never really SAW them. I never heard from them again after I took their babies cell phones away and put them in a zip lock for all our events.

squinko, not everyone likes talking on the phone. I'm a pretty damn social person and I HATE talking on the phone. I'd rather text them, e-mail them, IM them, or see them in person. I rarely, if ever, actually talk on my cell phone, unless it is to my sister because she doesn't have a cell phone and thus cannot text.

Just because someone doesn't like talking on the phone, doesn't mean they are anti-social. I'm not sure you guys know what anti-social means. Texting a lot isn't it.

What the hell are you talking about, Gokuhouse.

Buy an iPhone and use IM or email instead, or maybe you could try - the horror - being disconnected from your friends a little more often?

Anyone who can actually use SMS that much needs to see a psychiatrist...

Isn't when you are running instant messaging system from a phone that each inbound and outbound message is charged as separate message?

I hope I don't double post this. I was a cheerleading sponsor for 12-15 year old girls. My experience has been they text so they can talk about the other people in the room (not nicely) without being heard.

Just for God's sake, don't do it in the movie theater or while you're driving!!!!

That explains the bump on my head from one of those older motorola dumbells.

"Not anti-social, but definitely solipsistic. When you're texting (or online), the world revolves around you & what you're interested in. You don't have to participate in conversations you're not interested in, pay attention to a lecture, or read something dull."

Erm. Actually, it's proven that some people work better and pay attention better when they multi-task. I know people who knit while listening/watching a lecture, because it helps them focus.

I can text and pay attention to stuff around me.

I mean, come on now.

Yeah, I come up with 3 minutes too.

That being said. How is that even possible? That's texting 1 text a minute for 8 hours straight, 7 days a week. Kind of like a full time job with overtime.

@ pecan 3.14159265

IMing on a computer is not free. You still have to pay for your internet service. The girl has unlimited text. It's the same exact thing.

It's not that unlikely that they'd have a data plan to cover IMing, but mostly I was just comparing text to IM -- it's essentially the same thing, just via phone.

Sometimes I'll quickly text a friend instead of IMing them, because I have my phone with me and it's just more convenient then going to my computer, seeing if their online, etc. etc.

Though since then, she has come to appreciate the relative calm in the house.

It's impersonal and rude to whom, Mr.DuckSauce? Certainly not to you, since you didn't live with me and my ex-bf. So how is it impersonal and rude to you when I IM MY boyfriend in MY home?

We mostly did it when we were listening to music with headphones, or were in the middle of a game and it was less interuptive to just send a quick IM instead of going "HEY YOU! HEEEEY ERIC! HEY ERRRRIIIC LISTEN TO MEEEE WHAT TIME DO YOU WORK TOMOROW?"

I used to run up 7500+ msgs every month for nearly 6 months (thats when 3 of my friends changed carriers and we all had to quit cold turkey) [I had an unlimited plan ofcourse]. All this in addition to IMs, though we had dialup, so i was online only 2 hours a day. For a guy, thats a lot.

Heres the clincher... I had the Nokia 3310.. so essentially I had to empty by inbox every 20 msgs. I was so l33t at it i could even send back gramatically correct replies at rapidfire rate while looking out of the window of a moving bus.

On the down side, I can no longer watch a movie/show without pausing, checking mails, looking for IMs and "stumbling" twice. Good news is that I havent texted in several months now ;)

Things like this are why I don't want my currently-unconceived children to have cell phones. People like to tell me it won't be possible, but I'm gonna try!

Cell phones don't seem to be particularly popular among 13 year olds in my area, maybe the teens who are a little older like 15 or 16 have them since they can earn their own money for them. Most parents here try to avoid getting their kid a phone for as long as possible, but they are fine with getting the ipod at extremely young ages. I only know one 13 year old with a phone and she hardly uses it anyways, and she owns an Iphone.

Unfortunately this means adult Ipod owners who are actually using them to their full potential are seen as childish and playing with what is widely considered a children's toy in the area that I live in.

I don't think this is wrong, and no doubt its only going to get worse over time, so its either modernize with the rest of the culture and have kids think that you are cool for knowing about the latest tech when no other adults do, or be left in the old days and be like your parents who only talk about what they didn't have as a kid, and have your kids hate you as a parent. Parents only talk about how technology is bad for kids and try to do everything to keep their kids away from electronic toys. Kids need role models too, so I think if parents ACTUALLY TRIED to understand technology they would have a better understanding of their children and have a better relationship with their kids. Too many parents I know write off technology as something they do not even want to touch, and ironically these people have the most tech-obsessed kids. They don't even make an effort, not even one iota of an effort to understand their children or why their kids have those white earbuds on 24/7. If parents got involved with their kids technology use, it would also help to moderate technology use among kids and they would be able to show kids that there is a life outside of ipods and texting and it wouldn't be painful for the kids either.

pecan 3.14159265, I doubt their conversations would have been any more meatier had they been by phone. :P These are teenagers, after all!

I usually do 2000 - 3000 a month, topped 6k once . .

also those were sent and received txts. she was probably signed up for a lot of automatic alerts and whatnot.

You can send multiple texts at the same time. My current phone (LG RUMOR) lets me send to 25 numbers at a time. My previous one let me send 10 at a time.

Does AT&T include incoming and outgoing texts in the same count?

I'm sure there are other things that come into play as well. For the record my texting maxed out at around 1000 out/month at one time but has now settled to only about 300-400 out/month.

If she's at home, but her friends aren't, she could easily hop onto gmail and send her friends a SMS text from gchat without charging herself any money (which is moot because they've got an unlimited text plan).

When I'm at the computer and want to text my friends, I use the SMS text feature in gchat because it's easier to type on a full keyboard than the phone and that message doesn't get counted toward the total I paid for because it was sent from my e-mail. As long as the person replies to my address and not my phone, I don't get that message counted.

At least her parents can rest fairly assured that she isn't getting laid.

I always look for the bright side.

Consider, sent to 3 friends (3 texts) : "What are we doing after school."
Each replies, "I dunno, what do u wanna do?"

That sort of conversation can take awhile, with nothing actually being said.

nakedscience ... my point is that any 13 year old that spends every waking moment, even when surrounded by friends, texting could be a sign that the girl has some kind of problem. I'm just saying it is at least unhealthy and at worst, a sign of bigger problems.

The father is foolish to just brush it off as something 'those crazy kids do' these days.

Just keep in mind the numbers here. A text message every two minutes for every waking moment for a month. A MONTH of solid texting.

@squinko: What good reason can anyone have for not simply just talking to their friend when they're right next to them. I think we're creating a generation of purposely anti-social people.

Not anti-social, but definitely solipsistic. When you're texting (or online), the world revolves around you & what you're interested in. You don't have to participate in conversations you're not interested in, pay attention to a lecture, or read something dull. You just find something or someone else that's more appealing at that moment. It's a lot of fun, but it's also very self-centered. Probably not good to be immersed in that kind of environment all the time.

Also, we I've started noticing that electronic gadgets are very appealing to children. I don't know if it's a natural tendency to try to figure things out, or if we're training them younger to interact with these things. It struck me a couple weeks ago at a natural history museum & the zoo - no matter what you have around (animals moving around, giant dianosaur bones), if there's an interactive computer terminal, there's going to be a crwod of small children wanting to play with it. Disconcerting.

Easy solution if it is actually a problem - Turn off the phones ability to receive texts (Via your provider account) or make the kid pay for it

@nakedscience: @newdeepdan:
I averaged about 3,000 a month before I moved to where my girl lives

How is she doing this at school? And shouldn't her parents make her stop THEN, as opposed to after dinner, when she is, presumably, done learning?

Why is MSN (or IMing) better or different than chatting? It's essentially the same exact thing, just on a phone (you can IM on a phone, too!).

I can type REALLY fast on my cell phone.

Holy shit. Have these kids never heard of MSN?

This is sad. Parents should want people to think better of their children and themselves than to put insanity like this in print. How much time could he spend with his daughter?

Back in my teenaged days I did a few thousand a month with my boyfriend at the time. My parents were really concerned once when it reached nearly 4,000. "But Mom! He's moved out of state! And we're in loooove!" Naturally we broke up a couple weeks later. I feel you though my teenaged friend!

These days, I max out at 200 but mostly because my friends are cheap.

I used to IM my ex bf when we lived together and were in the same room. I am not anti-social....

CaptainCynic... I don't know. Just because she texts a lot doesn't mean she has "serious mental issues." That's a bit harsh. She's just a teeneage girl. Some teenage girls talk on the phone a looooot. Now it's text messaging.

What good reason can anyone have for not simply just talking to their friend when they're right next to them. I think we're creating a generation of purposely anti-social people.

The sad thing is the amount of actual conversation with any meaning or relevance probably would have amounted to 10 minutes between the four of them. Maybe her parents should let her have a sleepover once a month and the rest of the time she can do something worthwhile.

"can type really fast and accurately"

Except, if you can't spell. IRONY.

What the hell is wrong with this girl's father. "No texting after dinner"? What the heck kind of parenting is that.

This kid is obsessive and I'd dare say may have serious mental issues if she's got her head buried in text messaging all day every day. That is not healthy and this moron father should have the backbone to take her phone away.

@pecan 3.14159265 I've had full-on conversations via text before, usually while waiting in line somewhere, and I did it a LOT on the bus, or when I'm watching something on TV at the same time. If you have a QWERTY keyboard, you can type really fast and accuratley. I even (usually) use commas and "don't" and "won't" (not "dont" or "wont")! Heck, I'll even use the occasional semi-colon!

Before I had a QWERTY keyboard, I got really fast with predictive text.

It's just another form of typing. I can have full-on conversations here, why couldn't I via text?

That said, 15k is still a lot of fucking texts!

good god! i text a fair amount and I still use maybe only 500 a month! sometimes i do hit the 1000 mark (i have unlimited) but it's rare...

I average about 190 texts a month, receiving and going. But that's cause I purposely only signed up for the 200 limit plan.

I like texting, I think it's really useful. But like anything else in life...moderation is key.

Oh, wait...

I do maybe 10 a day at the most, I can't imagine doing that many. Just fricken call the person if it's not a quick "meet you there" or something.

I think the lessons to be learned here are the same as in the last time this exact same tale was told every month for the past few months on Consumerist, Gizmodo, and Fark:

1) Kids need to play outside more like we all did "back in the day".

2) Parents need to put the brakes on absurdly obsessive text messaging.

3) We need to vote with our "dollar" and stop commenting on this story. (Errr, starting with the next guy after me... ;) ).

That's one message every two minutes for each waking hour of a 30 day month.

Apparently you're not a teenage girl. And from the looks of your username, not a girl at all.