Whether you are a text addicted adult or a parent with a text addicted teen, a major sign of addiction is when you notice you are getting overages. Anyone texting over one hundred messages a month has the potential to become addicted, and overages cost money. Texting while at the dinner table, driving, at the beach or elsewhere when you should be enjoying yourself is potentially problematic. Text addiction is often linked to depressive and obsessive relationships as well. A text addicted teen or adult can easily see their grades or job suffer and they can be missing out on the real world.
Text plans
One of the ways in which you know that you or your teen is texting responsibly is when the number of text messages sent and received each month falls within the typical basic text plans. 250 text messages a month is more than adequate lee way for texting and if you or your teen is texting more than that to the point of getting overage charges or having to up the plan to cover more texts, it’s a warning sign of a problem brewing. It’s not about getting unlimited texting. It’s about the fact that you need unlimited texting.
Constant texting can really have a negative effect on ones social life. If the texting is linked to a relationship what is a sad truth is that the very texting that is resulting from a compulsive relationship may contribute to ruining that relationship. Relationships should not happen solely on text message and when text becomes the main form of communication between two people it’s a major sign the relationship is going dysfunctional and fast. Fighing on text is the worst. If a conversation requires more than a few simple texts then texting is not the proper venue for that conversation.
Retroactive overage reversal
Have you found yourself having to call that Verizon number and beg them to take back text charges or retroactively expand your plan? The phone carriers know all about this. They give you a little leeway and when you psyco text over your allotted allowed monthly amount of messages, that cell phone operator will usually offer to retroactively reverse overage charges. If, of course, you spend more money on a new plan. She’ll reverse ten bucks in overages in order to sell you sixty bucks a year more cost to up it to unlimited. As addicted texters know, overages can cost as much as 10 cents per text. That means only a ten text overage costs you a buck. It adds up quickly. That’s why most text addicts know exactly what overages are, they have been on the phone with the phone carrier trying to get charges reversed, and they have upgraded their text plans to unlimited messaging.
Upgrading your plan to unlimited
If you need to upgrade your text beyond 100 to 250 free per month, consider it a red flag. 500 to 1000 texts are a ridiculous amount of texts to be sending and receiving. If you have had to change your plan to unlimited texting then you know exactly who you are. The cell phone carriers are always willing to work with you and forgive the past 30 days of overages, in exchange for selling you into a higher grade and more expensive plan. With all the bells and whistles of cell plans a basic cell phone bill can run over one hundred dollars a month. Text packages alone can cost you five dollars for a basic plan and ten dollars a month for unlimited messaging.
Texting and boredom
Many people use texting as a default solution to their boredom and then they become junkies. If you are texting too much it might be time to pick up a hobby or go to the gym, anything but texting. You can’t just limit your text plan though because the carriers don’t halt the texting once the text limit ceiling has been reached. Instead, once you go over, they start to you charge an overage fee per text just like they do with minute overages. Parents who pay for their children’s cells have no doubt had to face minute and text overages. After the first shocker, they generally invest in the unlimited plans and then the teen becomes even more addicted since now everyone can talk and text ad nauseum.
Teen texting addiction
Parent can ban the cell phones at certain times and in certain places, but more often than not its not the tween that they have good control of that’s the problem. It’s the teenagers and beyond. Teens get really mental over their plans, social politics and relationships. Texting is really big with adults as well. Older adults are doing online dating with new verve and that internet dating and chat forum is another breeding ground for addiction texting and relationship obsession in general. Texts don’t grow on trees and a young adult might need to be paying their own phone bill to understand how much they are texting. An older adult might text out of desire to be in a relationship or to fill loneliness and a boring single life.
Phone app addict
Texting can be tied into general phone addiction which includes apps from face book to games. If your child is too hooked on ringtones, games and cell apps, it’s all a warning sign. In the old days the kids were glued to their chairs on the computer using computer games, video games, myspace and aol instant messaging, at least not able to walk into a moving vehicle or sign post. Nowadays, they are texting and cell phone gaming while skateboarding down the road, a real recipe for disaster. There is also the issue of texting and driving. You wouldn’t want your teen as a passenger in a car while the driver is texting down the pacific coast highway. Talk text ticket helps somewhat, but you can still get into an accident messing with your blue tooth or getting yourself on speaker phone.
Smile, you’re on candid text camera
If you have a friend, loved one, child, or parent that is ignoring you for the sake of texting you may want to film them in the act as a little innocent prank. Capture them texting and then show them, hey mom or dad you are texting all the time. Yes, parents too get text addicted, especially single parents who are relatively isolated from adult interaction. They may use texting to take a break from parenting. It may be annoying but at least the text junkie will get the message that they are ignoring the important people places and things around them. If you have recently been on the phone with Verizon or T-mobile or whomever your carrier may be, trying to get overages retroactively reversed or exploring new monthly packages to support your text habit, take heed. Your texting may be getting truly out of control.
You don’t have to text, and contrary to popular belief, your relationships will not be improved or of any higher quality because of the texting. Tweens, teens, young adults, and adults alike can all fall into text addiction so noone is immune to the cell phone era. Texting should be a once in a while thing. An icing on the cake of talking on the phone. When it becomes more than that, and you find yourself shopping unlimited text plans with your carrier to expand, its time to cut back. Nip that habit in the bud and let your friends and family know that you are with them when you are with them, and if they really want to talk to you, they should just give you a call.
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