Teen's texting is something her father shouldn't brag about

I’m sort of proud to say I’ve never texted anyone in my life.
Thirteen-year-old Reida Hardesty of California would probably laugh at me, as she sends more text messages in one month than most people will send in their lifetimes. In December, as her proud father told the New York Post, she sent 14,528 texts to friends, causing her family’s online phone statement to be 440 pages long.
That’s right, 14,528 texts.
14,528.
If the technology had existed when I was born and I was able to send one text a day, even as an incapable infant, I would have only sent 12,410 texts in my 34 years on this planet. I’d be 40 years old before I caught up to her one month total.
In bragging about his daughter’s accomplishment to the paper, her father said at first he didn’t think it was humanly possible to send that many messages in one month, but after doing the math he calculated she sent one message every two minutes while she was awake.
I’m not sure what school young Reida attends, but it’s probably the worst school in California if it allows her to text in class and doesn’t give her enough work to keep her too busy to text. If I were her father, I wouldn’t be bragging about her “accomplishment” to a newspaper. I’d be at the school asking her teachers how she can do this while in school, and then I’d take her cell phone and crush it until every last button was dust.
That sounds harsh, and some might argue kids need cell phones for emergencies or to help parents keep tabs on their whereabouts. My counter-argument is fail-proof, though: 10 years ago and the infinity before that cell phones weren’t common, and parents did fine keeping track of their kids, who remained as safe as they are now.
Reida’s father is lucky, because their cell phone package allows for unlimited texting for $30 per month. Without it, his bill would have been thousands of dollars. As a kid, I made occasional long distance calls to friends, and when my father saw the bill he let me know that I wasn’t allowed to make those phone calls. Apparently her father is much more lenient, which is too bad for her because she is probably going to grow up as an undisciplined, spoiled socialite who doesn’t know how to limit herself when necessary. But hey, at least she’ll be able to stay in constant contact with her friends.
The New York Post said the girl made the majority of her 14,528 texts to just four friends. They probably attend the same school and have the same type of parents as Reida, or else they are really annoyed she keeps texting them all the time.
Chances are they are texting her back, as the Post also reported the average number of monthly texts for a 13- to 17-year-old is 1,742. That’s more than 56 texts a day.
I’m not opposed to texting; I’ve just never had a need to do so, and since I haven’t had one, I’ve never bothered to learn how. If I have something important to tell someone, I’ll simply call that person, or send an e-mail. Checking my records, in the last week I made 10 phone calls, almost all of them to my wife, and sent 57 e-mails, the majority of which were work-related.
My wife and I talked to our cell phone carrier this past weekend to see about upgrading our phone and package to include texting, as we thought it might be a neat option. We can do so now, but it’ll cost us our child’s future education. We learned upgrading our phones would cost hundreds of dollars up front, although a portion of that money would come back to us in the form of a rebate. However, upgrading our package would cost us an additional $30 a month. We said “no thanks,” and walked out of the cell phone dealer’s store.
Someday maybe, we’ll get to the point where we have the texting option. I was reluctant to get a cell phone at first, and really only did so after we eliminated our land line, which was mysteriously more expensive than having a cell phone. I say mysteriously because I still haven’t figured out why it cost us more than $75 a month just to have land line service before any long distance charges were applied. That was a rip-off.
Reida’s father said he and his ex-wife have now placed restrictions on her. She’s not allowed to text after dinner. Tough restrictions. My suggestion to them would be to not allow any texts during the day – she is in school after all – and then allow her to send five texts after dinner.
Of course, monkey see, monkey do. Her father admitted he sends 900 messages a month, which is 700 more than the average for his age group. This average is 200 more than I and most of my friends, who are in the same age group as Reida’s father, make. I guess Reida’s father and his friends must be the ones bringing that average up.