You know that texting doesn't just happen on phones, right? Kids can (and do) download a free texting app to any wi-fi-enabled device – iPod Touches, iPads, Android tablets, etc. – and text with their friends for hours without racking up any Verizon, AT&T or other mobile carriers' charges. For the same reason that they're popular in countries where SMS, or text messaging, costs a lot, they're … [Read more...] about Texting apps taking over the world, it seems
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Teens’ cellphone data use tripled in past year
On average, teens exchange 3,417 messages per month, or "seven text messages per waking hour," Nielsen found in an analysis of data from more than 65,000 cellphone subscribers. Teens have "tripled their data use in the past year," but "data use across all age groups nearly doubled," the Washington Post reports in its coverage. "Survey participants ages 13-17 used an average of 90 MB per month in … [Read more...] about Teens’ cellphone data use tripled in past year
About teen drivers: ‘The Last Text’
It has to be one of the saddest titles I've seen. To help stop texting while driving, AT&T has produced a mini-doc about teens who have died, been critically injured, or have caused a death while texting behind the wheel, as well as those who sent the driver that final text. And the messages were so trivial: "lol," "where r," and "where u at." Said a young man in the video who has had to put … [Read more...] about About teen drivers: ‘The Last Text’
Texting beats driving for teens
Texting doesn't just beat out social networking for teens by more than 2 to 1, as Pew/Internet reported last spring, it also beats driving. Parent and Forbes writer Jim Motavalli has both anecdotal and numerical evidence, and I'm seeing the exact same thing at my house and in the research. Motavalli's just-turned-16-year-old is entirely ho-hum about getting her driver's license, and that was the … [Read more...] about Texting beats driving for teens