More Drama Than Daytime Television
The teen boys in love drama keeps getting deeper. So deep in fact that MySpace accounts had to be deleted and to be honest, I’m not sure they’ll be getting those back any time soon.
Also seized are three cell phones.
Life around here has gotten far more boring – but so much more productive!
Yesterday was the day the cell phone bill arrived in the mail. It wasn’t the total amount of the bill that threw me into a state of shock – it was the number of text messages that pushed me over the edge.
As a fun dinner table activity, I gave each son a piece of paper with a number at the top of the page, a pencil and a calculator.
Step by step, I gave them instruction on what to add, what to multiply and what to divide.
- Take the number at the top of your page and multiply it by 2.
- Take that number and divide it by 60.
- Take the number you have now and divide it by 24.
One son, the biggest offender started with the number 4279.
What we discovered with this project was that in the month of April he sent FOUR THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY NINE text messages!
If the average text message takes 2 minutes to create and send (granted some are shorter and some longer, but I’m shooting for an average here) that means when all was said and done, he had spent 5.94 full TWENTY FOUR Hour Days sending text messages.
IF we consider that he is actually awake 13 hours per day – that equates down to just over 11 days. So he spent ELEVEN full days of his waking hours sending texts.
By confiscating the phones and allowing them ONE hour per evening on them, I have given my kids back a full 1/3 of their life they would have lost.
Just imagine, he was sending texts AND playing on MySpace. There was no life outside of those.
How many hours or days did your kid spend sending text messages last month?
(images: stock.xchng)
got it!
I actually think Original Pumpkin (OP from now on for me) thinks a lot like some of the regulars here.
As far as getting carried away — have at it OP – we all do that sometimes.
Sometimes you just have to go a little insane to remain sane
I hope that comes across the way I do intend it 
Now can we get back to Kadi and her frivolous purchase of fake boobs?
Hey! I take my fake boobs to church almost every weekend and I do not let them text while we are there!
Ya know, if I had a pair, I wouldn’t let mine text either
As a college student with my teenage years recent enough for many to consider myself a child still, I feel my perspective might be from a new angle.
First, as has been stated before, a two-minute average is far too high for even the slowest (or eagerly-waiting) of teens. T9 functions allow for rapid typing with minor spelling errors, as similar words share certain button patterns. Secondly, from my own experiences, texting has served most often as a secondary form of communication in situations where verbal communication is impeded in some way, such as at church, in class, at a library, or watching a movie. These environments may seem controversial for texting in general, but I have found that certain circumstances warrant this means to spread information. Though normally I turn my phone off in church (it is my choice to attend, not my mother’s), there have been times where I have needed to contact someone regarding important matters, such as informing my mother as to when service has ended. Other times, people have texted me and I have responded (without taking the phone out of my pocket thanks to pattern recognition and muscle memory) with simple phrases like “at church.” The same goes for when in a movie theater. As this was a rare occurrence for me in high school, I usually kept my phone on silent and responded to texts (in my pocket again) with no more than a few words. Even in school have I found texting to be not only quick and simple, but important. My household did not have internet access when I was in high school, and thus the process of applying for college (which was entirely online) was done while I was at school. When problems arose with housing or financial aid, I was in need of a fast and easy way to contact my mother without disturbing her at work, and conversely to receive her replies without disrupting my classes. This was done through texting. More recently, as my sleep schedule has become more erratic and classes being later in the day, my mother has used texting to contact me without knowing whether or not I was able to answer the phone. Simple phrases like “I love you” might not seem as sincere on a screen than when heard, but when away from home for extended periods the difference is minute.
Nonetheless, four thousand texts is extreme. Yet I believe a more effective alternative to confiscating the phones would be to purchase prepaid ones. My mother did this for me when I was in high school, and it worked wonders with budgeting both time and money. Though she paid for phone cards on a regular basis, it was only enough to be used as a necessity, with the occasional recreational conversation. Any other use would have required me to purchase my own card, which I did when I could afford to. This process probably saved my mother quite a bit in overage fees, while teaching me how to handle scarce resources. It impacted me so much that when I decided to get a “regular” cell phone plan I was able to effectively purchase one with the least amount of minutes and no add-ons, except for texting, of course:)
@ Scott – Thanks for your perspective from a person recently in the texting scene.
I understand that the 2 minute mark is a little high – but this is a kid who has only been texting for a few months. This is a kid that takes 10 minutes to decide on what value meal he wants off the McD’s menu.
I’ve never rushed him through much because I like the fact he’s not “quick” to make decisions. He genuinely puts thought and effort into everything he does. This includes longer thoughts to do his messages.
I completely agree there are times when texting is wonderful and needed. That was the premise for the boys getting this feature to begin with. It just happens that something called a girlfriend altered that to extreme.
This child is SO emotionally attached to the girl sending messages that he does wait on the response – he does put a great deal of time and effort into each and every response.
Pumpkin,
I was brought up in church and it was far from miserable. It always felt good to have my family together for a common purpose and even as a small child I could sense a goodness about the place. Although there were certainly times that I would have rather been at home watching tv or something, I still wouldn’t call that miserable. We “force” our children to participate in many, many things that they object to from time to time and I believe it’s called parenting. Also, most sects of Christianity believe strongly in something called free will.. so while we may “force” our children to sit in the building with us for an hour once a week, most of us believe the decision to (Gasp, cover your eyes athiests; I’m going to say the word!, last warning, here it comes!) accept Christ or to accept the message in their hearts is absolutely their own. I would never want my child pretending to have a religious experience to please me – that defeats the whole purpose.
About the topic, Gayla – love the thing you did at the kitchen table. WAY too many text messages. I’m with the pizza commercial – “Sit down and actually talk to friends! Give your thumbs a rest!” And anonymous – you’re absolutely right. This is a huge generation gap issue. I’m only 27 and I DO NOT GET all the texting.. I don’t think texting is bad – I just don’t get it..
If it is ‘rude’ to expose them to religion, then I guess it is equally rude to teach them to say please, wear a bike helmet, not give their brother a bloody nose daily, and pick up after themselves. Imposing my values is what I am supposed to do as a parent. Now, if they get to be 25 and convert to a garden slug worshipping cult, well, I’ll be disappointed. But it will be their choice. However, they will have a solid religious education to compare that choice to.
And seriously, one hour in church? They spend more time than that watching a Star Wars DVD, and they can go that whole time without talking, fidgeting, or whining. They can sit still for an hour and not die.
Amen to that!
Thats how many sent and recieved
it takes less than 30 seconds to send a message and less than 10 to read
do the math better.
also- not to mention- sometimes if the text is over a certain number of characters (like 150) it is divided into 2 or more texts.
I often send texts that are actually counted as 2-3 messages, and when i get longer text messages, i am charged for 2-3 messages.
you are clueless
Kelly: If you would read the comments you would see that Gayla’s child hasn’t had a cell phone for very long. It takes him a while to send a message and he also thinks upon what he’s going to say. I think she knows her children and she has certainly observed how long it takes for her child to send a text. Some kids can text in 30 seconds and some can’t. 4200 text messages is an unbelievable amount and she did something about it.
Bad parent is bad
Bad parent is bad? What in the world is that supposed to mean?
Don’t you just love how the people that usually have nasty things to say do it anonymously.
yes
I love how ya’ll are arguing the math. LOL. It’s too dang much at 1,100 or 5,000! I think most parents are clueless and could care less about how much time and effort their teens are spending on the cell.. Good for you Gayla.
http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8333453
@ Becky. I wonder how much the monthly fee is when checking through 10,000 text messges