13 year old daughters text messaging...

[Eso]

What?

It's 5 sent per hour (assuming 8 hours of sleep).

That's one every 12 minutes. Where the heck does 1 every 3 minutes come from?

If she was sending 1 every 3 minutes, the monthly tally would be roughly 19,000 messages!
Hardly the case here.

First, do me the favor of reading the post I referencing, then I will spell this out for you...

5 texts/hour * 24 hours/day * 30 days/month = 3,600 text messages (so clearly this is a lower estimate than the actual usage)

Now, obviously you can not text continally 24 hours per day, so I assume there are about 12 hours per day where texting is acceptable, accounting for sleep and the majority of time in school where texting is prohibited. To estimate texts/hour now we have:

3,600 texts/month / 30 days/month / 12 hours/day = 10 texts/hour.

1/10 hour/text * 60 min/hour = 6 min/text.

So she sends a text message every 6 minutes on average. Usually you receive a text message in response (so double the number of texts) and you get 1 text message every 3 mintues. That is either a message she is reading or one she is writing - both requiring diverted time and attention otherwise spent on babysitting.

 

[MattZani]

Im 15, and with my current phone, i sent 110 texts last month, and used 65 minutes, IN THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS.

I Imagine when i pick up my 3G Next week, i'll use even less, as i'll be able to IM People instead

 

[Michael CM1]

The first step is to get some friends.

What's the point of friends when you get an iPhone? Just add a World of Warcraft account and personal contact be damned!!!

 

[Ntombi]

First, do me the favor of reading the post I referencing, then I will spell this out for you...

5 texts/hour * 24 hours/day * 30 days/month = 3,600 text messages (so clearly this is a lower estimate than the actual usage)

Now, obviously you can not text continally 24 hours per day, so I assume there are about 12 hours per day where texting is acceptable, accounting for sleep and the majority of time in school where texting is prohibited. To estimate texts/hour now we have:

3,600 texts/month / 30 days/month / 12 hours/day = 10 texts/hour.

1/10 hour/text * 60 min/hour = 6 min/text.

So she sends a text message every 6 minutes on average. Usually you receive a text message in response (so double the number of texts) and you get 1 text message every 3 mintues. That is either a message she is reading or one she is writing - both requiring diverted time and attention otherwise spent on babysitting.

Just so we're clear, AT&T counts incoming and outgoing texts, so you have divide the number in half, not double it.

 

[iSaint]

Just so we're clear, AT&T counts incoming and outgoing texts, so you have divide the number in half, not double it.

Sounds right. I'm late to this thread, but my daughter had 11,315 texts last month.

 

[Eso]

Just so we're clear, AT&T counts incoming and outgoing texts, so you have divide the number in half, not double it.

Oh ok. In that case you still don't cut it in half though, it's still just 1 text every 6 mintues.

 

[iNikon]

This is hysterical. A 13-year old with a $400 phone. Kids in her class? What the heck is this world coming to - we have 13-year olds with cell phones in school. Those things shouldn't even be permitted in school. I would love to see how you're going to keep up with her expectations on future gifts. Even worse, I want to see what you say when that phone is stolen in school.

Neither did I, in fact my father made me pay the cost of having a landline put into my room and then work extra chores for the monthly fee!

I gave her the first-gen iPhone when I got myself and the wife 3Gs. Works pretty well since I only have to pay the lower data fee for the non-3g unit.

And, yes, unlimited is a good thing. Add on a thousand minutes of weekend talk time and thats a girl who is definitely connected with her friends.

She did say she gets alot of attention as she is the only kid in her class with an iPhone.

 

[BoingoBongo]

That seems like way too much texting.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem like kids actually use the phone anymore, so I guess text messages have just replaced hours and hours of conversation.

It's kinda sad.

 

[carve]

This is hysterical. A 13-year old with a $400 phone. Kids in her class? What the heck is this world coming to - we have 13-year olds with cell phones in school. Those things shouldn't even be permitted in school. I would love to see how you're going to keep up with her expectations on future gifts. Even worse, I want to see what you say when that phone is stolen in school.

We can have cell phones in school, they just have to be turned off until school ends.

 

[Ntombi]

That seems like way too much texting.

On the other hand, it doesn't seem like kids actually use the phone anymore, so I guess text messages have just replaced hours and hours of conversation.

It's kinda sad.

I have several friends with teenagers who have only texting plans, no minutes. The only time they seem to talk on the phone is when their parents aren't texters and they call. It is what it is.


I'd rather text than talk half the time myself.

 

[cristo]

I'm not encouraging it, it's just reality.

I didn't say you were encouraging it, but the OP clearly is. Is this reality because it "just happened" or did parents have to allow it to happen? I think the latter. Whether it should be encouraged depends, to some extent, upon opinion. Given that I have seen students hand in homework written in "text talk," and write emails to professors that read something like "cn i meet u @ 3? tx" then no, I don't think texting should be encouraged at such a young age, since it is clearly detrimental to their spelling and grammar at the very least.

I would love to see how you're going to keep up with her expectations on future gifts.

Yup.. not going to be pretty when all his children start demanding expensive laptops...

It's kinda sad.

It is: at least when talking to someone you are actually interacting with them.

 

[bbplayer5]

Want to see the biggest temper tantrum ever? Call ATT and turn off text messages for a week buuuhahahahahahhaaa

 

[KUKitch]

Only 3970 texts??? Huh, she needs to pick it up a bit and start texting more. I think she needs to at least double that amount to keep up with the rest of her class.

Haha exactly, my 18 year old sister probably sends around 9,000 a month, and the highest I've heard from her was I think 14,000. It's ridiculous, I think I send a fair amount myself and it's only around 3,000 or so. Unlimited texting is a necessity and the threaded iPhone conversations don't even permit any sort of reasonable method for keeping track.

 

[packetjunkie]

At $199 replacements would be cheap if I needed to buy them; however, I hope that isn't the case and as I said, she'd probably get her RAZR back. Oh, I do have a first gen iphone I am not using.

I posted the number hoping to see what experiences others might have - as for trying to estimate how many text she can send in a minute, you havent seen her type. Two days into it she was a pro talking with 5 people at once and fingers flying. I would suspect her little figers are much better at that keyboard than those of us with bigger hands.

Kids talk like this - get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised (or upset) if that number went up.

 

[packetjunkie]

Yup.. not going to be pretty when all his children start demanding expensive laptops...

I'm guessing we have very different situations because thats not an issue; I buy new laptops every year and they trickle down. My 8 year old has been playing webkinz (sp?) on her 2 year old laptop for months now.

I'm also guessing you don't have children. I've got 5. Might not make me an expert, not claiming I am - but I probably have more real world experience raising them than you do.

 

[cristo]

I'm guessing we have very different situations because thats not an issue; I buy new laptops every year and they trickle down. My 8 year old has been playing webkinz (sp?) on her 2 year old laptop for months now.

It appears that you can easily afford to give your kids everything they want, if you can buy new laptops every year, have a family with top of the range phones, yet still manage to support five children. I would guess that your situation is very different from the average family.

 

[PNutts]

Don't forget you didn't have shoes either!

And you wore an onion on your belt... which was the style at the time... - AS

 

[SmartIndianKid]

At $199 replacements would be cheap if I needed to buy them; however, I hope that isn't the case and as I said, she'd probably get her RAZR back. Oh, I do have a first gen iphone I am not using.

I posted the number hoping to see what experiences others might have - as for trying to estimate how many text she can send in a minute, you havent seen her type. Two days into it she was a pro talking with 5 people at once and fingers flying. I would suspect her little figers are much better at that keyboard than those of us with bigger hands.

Kids talk like this - get used to it. I wouldn't be surprised (or upset) if that number went up.

Personally, as a 16 year old I averaged about 3,000 messages a month on a Pearl. So 4,000 from a female around the same age doesn't seem that unreasonable.

 

[packetjunkie]

It appears that you can easily afford to give your kids everything they want, if you can buy new laptops every year, have a family with top of the range phones, yet still manage to support five children. I would guess that your situation is very different from the average family.

Who knows what "average" is anymore - with the price drop, iPhone are not the exclusive toy they once were.

 

[cristo]

Who knows what "average" is anymore - with the price drop, iPhone are not the exclusive toy they once were.

Dude.. above you said that $199 replacements would be cheap [if she lost the phone]. Whether you can see it or not, that is not something the "average" person can afford to do.

 

[PNutts]

Does anyone find it disturbing that this thread has over 1500 views?

At work the joke is that the only way we can get employees to read corporate communications is to put "iPhone" somewhere in the subject, regardless of the content.

Now I know what to put in the topic to get people to read my posts.

 

[packetjunkie]

Dude.. above you said that $199 replacements would be cheap [if she lost the phone]. Whether you can see it or not, that is not something the "average" person can afford to do.

I won't disagree, I'm just not sure what "average" is anymore. Yes, I have been very fortunate and can provide a comfortable life for my family, but I'm not a part of the Jet-set crowd (although I certainly know a fair share who are).

I've owned four Dodge Vipers - probably that alone would disqualify me as "average"; but George Bush says the average family can afford a national baseball team.

 

[SkyBell]

I'm guessing we have very different situations because thats not an issue; I buy new laptops every year and they trickle down. My 8 year old has been playing webkinz (sp?) on her 2 year old laptop for months now.

Your 8 year old has a 2 year old laptop?! I thought I was lucky to even have a computer at that age, and it was a 6 year old desktop at the time. (Heck, even now, I have a 3 year old laptop! An 8 year old has a better computer then me?!)

Well, I guess this world is changing...seems a little excessive though.

 

[dccorona]

To the OP: do you not see that your 13 year old daughter sending 2000 text messages a month is bad enough, let alone nearly 4000. That's around 8 messages per hour, presuming that she's awake for around 16 hours. Does your kid not go to school? Spend time on homework? etc etc.. Wow.. I can't believe you haven't taken her phone off her a long time ago!

I don't know about you, but when I text message, I do other things as well. I can easily send that many texts in a month without texting during school. If you are having a conversation with someone, you'll be sending way more than 8 texts an hour. And it's not the only thing you do. I do my homework and text at the same time, and get straight As. If the text messaging begins to become a problem, such as her grades dropping , or shes texting at a time that you, as her parent, find inappropriate (that is for you to decide, not for this forum to vote on) than the texting may be affecting her life, and then I could see taking her phone away as an option. But if she does what she's supposed to, and gets good grades, then you shouldn't punish her for talking to friends.

 

[packetjunkie]

Your 8 year old has a 2 year old laptop?! I thought I was lucky to even have a computer at that age, and it was a 6 year old desktop at the time. (Heck, even now, I have a 3 year old laptop! An 8 year old has a better computer then me?!)

Well, I guess this world is changing...seems a little excessive though.

When I was that age they didnt have home computers. When my first was born a Seagate 8GB external hard drive cost me $8,000 and the 2 SGI Indy's I bought for my home were $15k a pop. Just last week I bought a Dell XPS M630 for some $1100 (sans monitors, I'll keep my dual 24" setup for now).

The difference is that the cost is so much less we can afford to buy things we never dreamed of when we were kids. That I can trickle down my hardware is a benefit as we have workstations for homework in one area and the kids can play on laptops or PCs while Mom figured out her 24" iMac.

Excessive? I don't think so, but maybe others do..... for me its just the way things are.