One third of teen's text over 100 times a day-
A recent study by the pew Internet and American life Project has determined that tech texting has been experiencing exploding growth. A teenage boy or girl with a cell phone will on average text about 100 times a day, according to the study.
With this explosion of texting by teenagers come numerous social ramifications and also some serious safety ramifications. A student can text in class, at home with parents unaware or almost anywhere undetected.
In a poll a large percentage of teenagers indicate that they sleep with one next to their cell phones. Certainly that is the case in my home with my teenage boys.
Numbers as high as 5000 text messages per month are common and more likely the norm for some teenagers. Researchers indicate that texting is the new Mecca of social communication for teens.
The study also found what we all know and that is boys are different than girls, in that boys frequently do not use punctuation while girls are more careful in their communications.
At my home the majority of text messages are "k" short for ok and "ru" short for are you or "gtg" short for got to go!
While it may take some time for the social ramifications of texting to fully show, the safety issues are crystal clear right now. For teens to text and drive a car is extremely dangerous and the equivalent of giving up 3 car lengths of safe distance (in distraction time).
A solution is to train young adults to put their phones down or turn them off while driving. Parents its up to us to train our children to drive safely, and all of us need to police texting while driving of our children. The key is to deter the texting while driving before the boys or girls develop a habit of texting while driving.
Greg Baumgartner is a Houston personal injury attorney and also the founder of the Baumgartner Law Firm, which is dedicated to helping victims of auto accidents, truck wrecks, motorcycle accidents and other serious injury lawsuits. If you or a loved one has been seriously injured in an automobile accident, and have questions about a car accident injury claim call the Baumgartner Law firm for a no obligation consultation.
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