40,000 texts in one month! Really? This is not uncommon for some people. 40,000 words, just single words, are enough to write a novel (Wikipedia). How many texts do you send? Our world keeps changing and it seems that our thumbs are increasingly in use to keep our relationships at arm’s length.
I was at the AT&T store yesterday. I figured it would be good to get a phone living back stateside again. I haven’t owned a personal phone in over 2 years – crazy right?
I chatted with a friendly and knowledgeable AT&T representative, Jay. We were discussing phone plans, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough minutes, but he reassured me that people (young) rarely burn up talk time, because they are texting more and more. Jay gave me the 411 on texting.
He said that one of his customers texts on average 40,000 a month! At 5 seconds per text that comes out to over 55 hours. Comparable to a good work week with overtime. He said on average he sees his customers my age texting around 3,000-5,000 a month.
A recent CBS arcticle writes, “the rate of texting has sky rocketed 600 percent in three years.” Putting teens at an average of 3,000 texts a month.
Jay told me a story about one of his college classes. On the first day of class the professor asked everyone to hold their phone high, turn them off, and place them on the edge of the desk. Soon afterward some students stealthy slip their phones in their laps under the desk to stay synced up. My brother tells a similar story, only he saw some of his classmates leave halfway through unable to overcome their nicotine text withdrawal.
Addicted to texting?
Addicted: “Physically and mentally dependent on a particular substance, and unable to stop taking it without incurring adverse effects. – Oxford American Dictionary
Yep, sounds like an addiction.
The average Facebook users spends 7 hours a month syncing up by clicking away on countless friends, according to The Nielsen Company. Are you an average user? I remember when Facebook first came out in 2004. I said things like, “I will never get an account, not falling for it, I am holding out” Right? Many of you may of have a similar story but then one day you took the plunge.
Now I am not against texting and keeping up with friends. (I texted in Haiti regularly and used Facebook to stay connected – I even used it to have people pray for me when I was running a fever.) But I am against addictions.
My generation, and the one below it, is taking comfort in a new kind of drug – The Purple Haze Data Craze. Most of us are good kids with good hearts – we believe in LOVE. However, I think our drugged up 1960s friends said something similar, “All you need is Love”.
Makes me wonder if we/I are coming under the influence of a subtle growing ensnarement. A bondage. An idol. A silent plague.
Living back in the states will present new tests. Will I cave into data drug gluttony? Or will I be able to maintain my ever increasing lust for God and his Kingdom?
I like a quote from Seth Godin, “People who are way out of sync with the digital maelstrom of the moment
aren’t always bad followers. They might be great leaders.”
