A CNN news segment on the show Good Morning America talked about the text message craze. The show referenced a study by the Neilson company says that on average, a typical teen sends upwards of 3000 texts amonth. Another study by Pew Research company found that when it comes to teenagers, texting messages is used ore than any other form of electronic communication. Teens use text more than phone calls, instant messaging and face to face talking.
Teens in particular find a constant need to keep in touch with one another. And don’t put addiction texting past adults either. Nowadays adults meet on the internet and after a few email exchanges and liking the picures they see, the conversaion moves off the dating site and onto a few phone calls, and then on to text communications.
Dr Michael Rich calls himself a mediatrician. He claims that an addictive behavior is one that satisfies a craving that can only be satisfied when doing it. And texting fits the addiction potential like any other addictions from gambling, drugs or sex addictions.
Some neuroscientists beliece that this desperate need for constant commication has a chemical as well as emotional component to it. Texting causes a little sparkling chemical reaction in the brain and it’s the same type of brain high that addicts using herion get.
Granted, texts aren’t drugs. But if the person at the other end of the text is a Brad Pitt lookalike hunk you hsve a crush on, you’d be surprised how easy it could be to get addicted and start bugging him all the time. Not only can your constant texting become stalking, authorities also think that texting is such a distraction that texting messages in general is not always safe. Teens and young adults alike text while driving and when stopped at red lighs. When they are walking and texting it’s almost as bad as crossing streets with headphones on. You lose track of what is going on around you when texting obsessivey.
Getting a text becomes a fix for many. You send a text out and if you get one back right away you get an instant high. Conversely if you send a text out and never hear back for hours if at all, then text interactions become depressing.
Teenagers are not the only ones doing the texting. Parents tend to use text to keep track of their kids and using texting as a discreet way to check in on them without intruding with a phone call. Having four kids I can tell you the fastest way to contact them is via text messaing them. For safety reasons parets lie their children to carry cell phones so that if they they get into a pickles they can makeup a phone call.
Parents don’t mind text access because its usually the fastest way to check in with your child and make sure everything is OK. The adult are usually the ones buying addictional phone numbes and unlimited texting packages to their tweens and teens.
But adults are also using texts to flirt and sext. Just remember that your texts can be recorded and saved and later used against you.
You might rememver the media scrutiny focused on Tiger Woods’ extracurricular life. His mistresses saved the texts and posted them to public websites. He subsequently got divorced because of the philandering. And the philandering evidence prooved to be the ongoing text message exchanges he had with women.
Seeing as 1 in 3 teens send up to 120 texts a day, it is clear that yes indeed, texting can become an addiction. While texting is a great way to drop a line or check in with somebody, you don’t want to go everyboard with the text. If you are sending more than 100 texts a day to friends, crushes, or any recipient, then your texting as gone too far.
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