Strollerderby : texting

Girl Sends 6,473 Texts in One Month, Fingers Don't Fall Off

KeriF — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:01:00 GMT

In my busiest texting month, the month prior to the birth of my daughter Molly last June, when my friends were often texting me with messages like, "still pregnant?", I only sent about 50 texts ("yes."). Then again, I'm ever-so-slightly older than the average teenager, who seems to be permanently attached to his or her cell phone, which, I might add, should more precisely be called a text phone. Do teenagers even talk on the darn things?

Julie Zingeser, a 15-year-old from Rockville, MD, doesn't seem to have the time. That's because Julie texted her friends 6,473 times in one month. With all that texting, who has time to talk?

That's more than 215 texts every day. Is that possible? This reminds me of those blasted AOL CDs the company flooded the market with back in the 1990s, discs that offered 1200 free hours of Internet for 30 days, even though there weren't that many hours in a month.

How can a girl send that many texts while still going to school, bathing, and (hopefully) doing homework?

According to Julie, she does not text while performing on the pom squad (whatever that is), playing on her lacrosse team, or at dinnertime, because her parents don't allow it (thank goodness). But that means that basically any other time, she's texting nonstop.

"If I really look into it, I think it is affecting my focus and my closeness with my family," says Julie. "I'm not 100 percent present," when texting, she says.

Pam, Julie's mom, pays $30 per month for unlimiting texting, so isn't worried about the financial cost, but rather the psychological toll. "I'm concerned that in the long run they will be addicted to instant communication and gratification," she said, and thinks maybe kids of Julie's generation are uncomfortable with face-to-face conversation.

This article in The Washington Post doesn't say what, if anything, Pam plans to do to limit Julie's texting habit. I'm not sure what she really could do, other than take away the phone.

Would you limit the amount of texting your kids do in a month?

Photo: The Washington Post

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A Safer Space for Kids Online: Hope or Hype?

Kate Tuttle — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Concerned about the dangers of online predators, mom-of-five Mary Kay Hoal launched a social networking site that she hopes will provide a safe space for kids aged 9 to 18 to interact. But can places like Yoursphere -- which charges a monthly access fee and checks to make sure nobody on it is a registered sex offender -- really serve as alternatives to Facebook (or to MySpace, the Sodom and Gomorrah of Hoal's press release, although nobody really uses MySpace anymore)? And is an alternative even needed?

If you read Hoal's site or her press release (or watch the Nancy Grace Show), you are probably pretty worried about your child's Internet safety. You know that there are sex offenders on MySpace (even though that number, widely disputed, is only about half what you would expect, given the general population on MySpace), you know that "sexting" and other technologically-enhanced forms of teenaged sexual expression can get you killed, and you know that you want to protect your kids.

Well, I agree with you about the last one. As for the other two, it's fairly clear that the dangers of sexual predation online are vastly overstated and exagerated, both by shows like Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" segments and by the marketing for alternative sites like Hoal's. And when it comes to teenaged cruelty around issues of sex and reputation, technology hasn't changed things one whit: girls have been harrassed for sexual activity for centuries in our culture, which continues to both demonize and deny teen sexuality. The medium makes very little difference (except that now, if your teen is engaged in thoroughly consensual sexual flirting using cellphone pictures, she could get charged with child pornography).

As a new study out of Harvard's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society points out, worried parents are barking up the wrong tree here. It's not Facebook, MySpace (does anyone still use MySpace, seriously?), or the Internet at large that hurts kids; the dangers kids face online are the same as they face offline -- dating violence, sexual harrasment, social ostracism, bullying, and yes, sometimes (but very rarely) sexual predation by adult strangers. How to protect them? Funny enough, it's not from banning them from the Internet, or stealing their passwords, or spying on them. Just as in the offline world, kids are protected by having caring adults who talk to them, who make it their business to know where their kids are and what they're doing, who know their friends and are involved in their activities, and who let them know every day that their kids can always come and talk to them about anything. Those of us who have babies, toddlers, and preschoolers right now have no way of knowing what kind of technological advances and devices will flavor their world. All we can do is try to keep up, understand what they're up to, and remember that the more things change, the more they stay the same. It turns out that trust and respect -- not spying, forbidding, or trying to scare them (or their parents) to death -- is what really keeps kids safe.

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Something Else to Annoy Parents: The Baby BlackBerry!

Kate Tuttle — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:01:00 GMT

From Leapfrog, maker of all things loud and useless, comes a new product you've really got to hope nobody sends your kid for her birthday -- the Baby BlackBerry. We all know that babies, toddlers and preschoolers are magnetically attracted to all their parents' electronic goodies (in our house, the iPhones are zealously guarded, lest the toddler make off with one and smear the screen with his grubby little hands), but is that any reason to buy them one of their own? Isn't this inviting an ever-faster indoctrination into the cult of consumerism, creating a new generation that will be even more disconnected from actual interaction that those preceding it?

Apparently the thing costs around $25, features simple games and a "pretend browser," along with a virtual pal named Scout, with whom preschoolers who can spell may exchange fake text messages. It's hard not to see this as a gateway drug to ever more expensive real phones and PDAs, a scary thought for those parents who had been hoping to wait till at least middle school before all that mess. As the parent of a toddler and a teenager, I will try not to scare you by telling you how many text messages the teen sends a month, but it's pretty impressive.

Leapfrog has made a mint selling things kids don't actually need, marketing to parents (and, I'm guessing, lots of grandparents) by appealing to their insecurity about being left behind in the great electronic revolution. I'm here to tell you that my toddler things the old calculator I gave him is a phone (or sometimes a "puter"), because it has keys and numbers, and he can carry it around and pretend to talk to Nana all he likes. Works for us!

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Feeling :( ? It'll Cost You $$$

KeriF — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 23:00:00 GMT

My kids are all under the age of 4, so I still have a few years (I hope) before I have to worry about cell phone bills and incessant texting. But if a Russian businessman has his way, I'll have to be extra vigilant about monitoring their texting.

Oleg Teterin, who owns a mobile ad company, has copyrighted the winking emoticon--a semicolon followed by a parenthesis.

"Legal use will be possible after buying an annual license from us," he was quoted by the Russian newspaper Kommersant as saying. "It won't cost that much--tens of thousands of dollars."

What a bargain.

Teterin insists he won't crack down on individual users, but rather corporations who aim to profit from the wink.

I know what you're thinking. Why not copyright the letter "s" while he's at it?

And you're right. Russian media reports doubt the man's copyright will hold under appeal. But you gotta give him props for trying, right?

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Booty Caller Texts When You're Ovulating

JeanneSager — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 17:57:00 GMT

Cervical mucus tests skeev you out? Me too. Don't worry, BabyCenter has stepped in to take the eww out of baby-making with ovulation text alerts sent straight to your cell phone.

The Booty Caller will send three messages your way every month to let you know when it's time to get a little . . . and when it's not.

The service is free (your wireless company's standard texting fees still apply), sponsored by First Response (who, wouldn't you know, make ovulation and pregnancy tests). BabyCenter's building off survey estimates that 19.3 million moms text as it makes the bid for a few more of their mobile minutes.

As one of those one-and-done Moms, I've got to say I can see the booty caller becoming Dad's worst enemy. Sorry honey - checked with my phone, and I'm too fertile for words. On the other hand, they do say you can enter his cell phone number into the mix too - so at least he can be prepared to be jumped when he walks in the door.

At the very least, it's cheaper than calling the psychic hotline again to find out when you're finally going to get that second baby.

Source: BabyCenter via YourTango

Image: First Response

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They Say: Text Messaging Can Fight Childhood Obesity

JeanneSager — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:49:00 GMT

So they have a permanent squint from staring at that little screen and they speak in text-message-ese (or is that only in corny wireless commercials?). Texting can be good for your kids. According to a study in this month's issue of the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, obese kids get the same benefits from texting that they would from traditional food diaries.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina broke families into three groups - one with kids reporting back to parents via text message, one with kids filling out paper diaries and a third not monitoring their intake at all. Parents of the texting and paper diary kids were given a series of questions to ask daily: what was the number on your pedometer today?; how many sugar-sweetened beverages did you drink today?; and how many minutes of screen time did you have today? Before letting them loose, researchers led the families in an educational program to help kids learn better eating behaviors. They were encouraged to reduce their sweets and increase their activity levels.

The kids who answered via their cell phone were more than twice as likely as the paper diary keepers to make the effort to answer the questions. Less than half fell back into their poor eating habits. Perhaps playing a role in the results were the positive feedback messages generated when kids sent in their text messages. A little bit of sugar goes a long way - especially for kids on a diet.

There's a certain amount of irony in the researchers' suggestion that kids limit their "screen time," before putting them in front of a tiny screen to monitor their weight. But a little screen they can take anywhere can take them off the couch and out into the fresh air. Turns out kids can walk, talk, chew bubblegum AND text. And maybe, lose weight?

Image: PocketPicks

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TLK2UL8R POS (Um, what?)

Brett Singer — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:00:00 GMT

In case you weren't sure, text messaging has caught on big with the teen/tween set. The New York Times says that this is a way for them to talk without their parents knowing what they're talking about. Gee, I had to actually go outside if I didn't want mom to know what I was up to. Between texting and not walking five miles to school, up hill, both ways, these kids today have it way too easy.

Translation of the title of this post is after the jump.

TLK2UL8R = Talk to you later, POS = Parent Over Shoulder. Translations are from Webopedia, but, as the Times points out, by the time you learn these, there will probably be more lingo to learn.

image: Wikipedia

Competitive Texting is Not For You

Karen Murphy — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 21:38:00 GMT

Because I don't care how old you are, you are too old. Over the hill. Past your prime. Can't compete. Obsolete.

Shall I go on?

That's right, in the world of competitive texting (like you knew there was such a thing?), if you're over the age of about 15, you're out. Your thumbs cannot possibly keep up. The wires between your brain, your impossibly tiny keyboard, your eyes, and your thumbs is hopelessly corroded by the oxidation of time, my friend. So don't even try.

Standing in line last month in Customs in Vancouver, I laughed when 2/3 of arriving travelers whipped out their texting devices as soon as they got in line. One early-twenty-something couple stood apart while they texted like mad for about 15 minutes without speaking to one another or looking up except to nudge their bags a little farther up the line, not even skipping a move wth their flying thumbs.

But even that couple couldn't compete in yesterday's National Texting Championship, held in New York City, where the majority of the competition couldn't drink legally or in many cases, couldn't vote or drive.

But they could text "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" on their QWERTY LG phones in record time, and in the end the reigning West Coast champion, Eli Tirosh (age 21) was edged out by the new champ, Morgan Pozgar. Who's in junior high. Because she's 13.

Your walker, lap robe, and dentures will be issued shortly.