3

Tweet

Carpal-Texting Syndrome: Disabling Our Thumbs, Text by Text

Do teens text too much?

Texters of the world, unite! An article in the New York Times on May 25th reported that “American teenagers sent and received an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008, according to the Nielsen Company - almost 80 messages a day, more than double the average of a year earlier.”

80 messages a day?! Pffffttttt… These kids got nothing on me. I send approximately 500 texts a day. Who cares about “anxiety, distraction in school, falling grades, repetitive stress injury and sleep deprivation,” when I can constantly hear from my friends, allll dayyyy long?

As the screen lights up, the little beep goes off, the sign: 1 New Message appears… my heart starts to beep faster, my breath quickens. This is what I live for, and hypocritical adults with their BlackBerries and iPhones cannot take that passion away. Think about how useful texts are: they’re fast, quiet, lend themselves to multi-tasking and are easy to slip in under the (not-so-watchful) eyes of parents and teachers. Immediate gratification is key to our generation.

And growing up in a world where one hardly knows how to have a face-to-face conversation, actually calling someone is terrifying. So like BBM, Facebook Chat, MSN and email, texting offers the comfort of virtual words.

Take the case of 13-year old Reina Hardesty who “racked up 14,528 texts in one month.” This girl knows where it's at.