the numbers R in

Texting Takes a Toll on the Pocket

When texting first became popular, cell phone companies didn't offer any specials or bundles for text messaging. According to the market data reports of the Global System of Mobile communication (GSM) In 1995, cell phone customers were sending on average .4 text messages a month. By the end of 2000, 17 billion SMS were sent. That number was blown out of the water by the end of 2001, when 250 billion SMS were sent. As the popularity of texting kept growing and growing, the mobile phone industry caught on to this money maker and charged on average $0.10 per message. In 2004, 500 BILLION text messages were sent, which represents close to 100 texts for every person in the world.

(Statistics courtesy of GSM's Wireless Intelligence Operational Data Report)


Personal Research

While conducting this research on text messaging, I wanted to include my personal SMS use on a monthly basis. I reviewed my wireless bill for the last six months and gathered the data in order to present a typical use on a monthly basis of SMS.

For Six Months In 2009, the following data represents the number of text messages sent and received by one person:

June: 1,408 texts
July: 1,375 texts
August: 2,005 texts
Sept: 1,531 texts
Oct: 1,142 texts
Nov: 1,492 texts

In six months, the total text messages sent: 8,953
Average text messages sent per day: 49


A Tough Act to Follow

The picture at the top of this post is of thirteen-year-old, Reina Hardesy--of Orange County, California. Her father, Greg Hardesty, who writes for the Orange County Registrar Newspaper, published a story that isn't extactly "proud papa news." She sent an astonishing 14,528 text messages to her friends in one month. Let’s put that into perspective: that’s 484 text messages per day, or one message every 2 minutes. Her father, Greg, said she had an unlimited texting plan, but if she didn’t, the bill would have been around $3,000.

Check out this video that I found, that tells Reina's story better than I can.


The Results

The results of this "numbers" research surprised me a little bit... I actually thought that I had sent more than 50 text messages per day, which is chump change when put into perspective with Reina's usage. I would argue that the reason my average is so low is because of this semester in school, student's can't text message while there in class, right?

In my next post, I will dive into the current debate over the effects text messaging has had in academic discourse.