My daughter could probably do 14k of texts in a month if school did not get in the way. The first month she had her phone she did > 9k. Thank goodness for unlimited plans!
When we first had texting on out phones she did the LOL OMG crap, but I banned it in texts to me. Now IMtext bugs her too. I made the mistake of typing thru rather than through and heard about it for a while.
She has her phone set on T9 which works, but to me that’s cheating.
As much as I dislike texting, it’s one of the few places mild chatspeak wouldn’t bother me. It’s hard enough just getting text in in a coherent manner for me (obviously, I don’t text much, so when I do it’s not easy), so I’m not about to chew someone else out for taking a shortcut. As long as I can understand it without digging out my Megaman decoder ring, I’m happy.
(I’m hoping most people will outgrow chatspeak–I know I did, but it also wasn’t as ahem “developed” back then so I never picked it up much either)
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It does bother me how she manages to have relationships borne only through texting. Her last boyfriend asked her out via text. The were moopey via text. They argued via text. His friends bitched at her via text and her friends bitched at him via text. They broke up via text. I asked her if their issued would have maybe been handled better if they spoke and while she agreed, she also figured she’d be more apt to “wuss out” if they talked over the phone or f2f.
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Did they ever even meet in real life ? 
When I was a kid I had to walk three miles to school. Uphill, both ways.
You bring up a good point about the distribution list messages. 10k+ sounds like way too much and it can be, or it can be somewhat mild depending on your texting habits. If you’re sending individual texts to specific people and still managing 10k per month you have a problem (hand and joint related if nothing else), however most people who are really into text messaging have lists set up, they also probably use mobile IM programs. Mobile IM programs look just like your computer chat however every message you see and every one you send is treated like a text message, including your status updates if I’m not mistaken. Then you add in services like twitter, facebook and myspace notifications… 10k goes quickly.
Seriously? Wow. I’m glad it works for you, but this would drive me bananas.
Yes, they went to middle school together. She does have people she texts regularly that she met at a show or a concert, never to see f2f again. She was debating about asking a text friend to a dance - they met at a concert 6 months ago, text daily, but haven’t seen each other since the concert.
I guess I kind of look at it as long distance friendship with more immediacy than snail mail.
After a botched intro month with AT&T I bought her unlimited internet access for XMas. NOW she also gets her e-mails, which is worth the $15/mo additional fee. Of course she now texts, chats, and surfs the 'net all at once.
(Here I am, on the 'net, talking to my Mom on the phone, and instant messaging a co-worker. )
Sure. But I met my husband in a chat room (ten years ago…) and so we’ve always been comfortable with chatting. I met my best friend online, too. We’re very accustomed to communicating through chat/email, and it doesn’t seem particularly strange to us.
Oddly, I was thinking of how communication has changed over the years just recently, having nearly finished David McCulloch’s biography of John Adams. It’s quite clear that for the literate classes of that day, writing reams of letters on a daily basis was the norm; furthermore, for the politically minded, letters might circulate among many hands, thus performing some of the same functions that a messageboard does today. P.G. Wodehouse makes it clear that letter writing continued to fill similar roles into the Edwardian era, and described how it was typical for guests at a country house to set aside some time every day for letter writing. Moreover, an anguished mother, on the occasion of a child’s unsuitable engagement, might write to her sister and include an addendum asking her to “please read this and forward at once to Jane”.
So whereas 100 years ago they couldn’t wait to get out their pens, ink, and paper when something was on their mind, today we post our concerns here, or on Facebook, or elsewhere on the internet. It’s not really much of a difference, IMO.