Teenagers luv 2 txt, but a $500 phone bill won’t exactly make their parents LOL.
The first month she got her thumbs on her new cell phone, 13-year-old Emily Wagner-Davis sent 5,448 text messages, a number she recites without hesitation. Purchased a la carte at 10 cents a message, they would have cost $550, but Emily’s parents added unlimited text messaging to her cell phone plan, for which she pays $7.50 a month.
“We have friends whose kids have $200, $300 bills with text messaging,” says Emily’s mom, Mary Wagner-Davis of Roseville, Calif., who realized that unlimited text messaging would save hundreds of dollars after observing that Emily’s friends and older sister used their cell phones for “just as much, if not more, texting as talking.”
Some of Emily’s 5,448 text messages were sent to her friend Ashley Wallace of Roseville, who also has an affection for text messaging. Ashley’s parents didn’t initially purchase a plan for text messaging; they figured 10 cents a message couldn’t add up to much. But in the first month, Ashley’s chatty thumbs ran up a bill of more than $200.
“My husband and I figured out it was about 40 text messages a day,” says Ashley’s mom, Marlo Martin, who added 1,000 text messages to Ashley’s monthly cell phone plan. Ashley paid the $247 bill she’d created in text messages and downloads, and her parents decided she would pay for her cell phone each month.
Emily, who’s in 8th grade at George Buljan Middle School in Roseville, can’t figure out how teens are supposed to survive with plans that allow just a few hundred messages a month. “Some people only have like so many text messages, and I’m like, how can you do that?” wonders Emily.
Billions of messages
It seems many Americans would agree with Emily’s sentiments. In June 2005, wireless users sent 7.3 billion text messages–that’s up 154 percent from June 2004, according to a survey by the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. As for teenagers, 64 percent of teens who own a cell phone have sent a text message, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
“Most teens that don’t text yet just haven’t,” says Michael Wood, the vice president of Teen Research Unlimited. “But when they’re introduced to it, they’re in. It becomes part of their daily life.”
Many parents of teenagers underestimate the need for a plan that includes text messaging, which can make opening the monthly cell phone bill a jaw-dropping experience.
More Top Picks Best Resistance Bands For Seniors Physical Therapy
“I suspect that parents get sticker shock from their bill because they’ve got a plan based on how they use their phone versus how their teens use their phone,” says Mark Donovan, vice president and senior analyst for M:Metrics, a wireless industry analyst company. “Parents and teens look at their phones as totally different instruments.”
Donovan says most adults use their cell phone simply for the feature for which it was originally intended: making phone calls. But teenagers have quickly adopted the newer features, such as downloads, photos and text messaging.
Many parents also have trouble decoding their monthly cell phone bills. Jim Hood, a representative of ConsumerAffairs.com, says shockingly high cell phone bills are often the result of the length and confusing details of the bill.
“We do process an awful lot of complaints from consumers, and many of them are really based on misunderstanding,” says Hood, who admits that he only glances at the cell phone bills for his teenage daughter because the information is almost unintelligible. “I just give up on it,” he says.
When parents give their teen a cell phone, the fear of overage charges causes many parents to say something like, “Here’s your phone–don’t use it,” says Peter Drozdoff, vice president of marketing for Surewest. But parents with text-crazed teens have several options for keeping the bills at a reasonable level.
Wireless industry analysts agree that parents should just assume that their teenager is going to text–a lot. Most industry analysts recommend adding unlimited text messaging to teenagers’ plans.
“They don’t want to have to be limited, they just want to use the phone the way they want to use it, and that’s a lot,” Drozdoff says.
Parents just don’t understand
The teen obsession with texting, though, is something many parents simply don’t get. Why tap out all those words and abbreviations when it’s easier just to call someone?
“My husband and I are trying to figure that out,” Martin says. “To us, it would be easier to dial a number.”
But to teens, texting is the best way to confirm plans or send a quick note without the formalities of a conversation.
“When I don’t really feel like talking to someone, I can just text them, so I don’t have to have a full conversation,” says 19-year-old senior Solomon Silva, who’s home-schooled. “I don’t really like to take the time to call someone and talk to them for just hours. It’s easier to just text them and ask a question.”
“It’s straight to the point,” agrees Cybil Bryant, who’s 16 and a junior at Christian Brothers High School in Sacramento. “If you’re like leaving your house to go to someone’s house, you can just text them and say, `Be there in 5.'”
Some teens rely on text messaging for tough conversations or arguments, since sometimes “you don’t have the guts to say things to people upfront,” Cybil says.
“If a guy asks you out on a date, it’s easier for them to say that than say it in person,” says Cybil, who says it seems like most guys ask girls out via text messages. “I got asked to like three homecomings this year, and it was all through text messaging.”
Psychologists say teens’ obsession with texting isn’t surprising, since this age group has always been known for its need for constant communication.
“At that stage, kids are typically pulling away from their parents, and in doing that, the people that become most important to them are their peers,” says Philadelphia-based family therapist Donna Tonrey. “Years ago, you would hear parents talk about how they could never use the phone when their teenagers were home, but now the phone is in their pocket.”
But text messaging puts conversations into different contexts, which is changing how this generation communicates. Emily’s dad, Steven Wagner-Davis, has seen it from his rearview mirror. He says that as he drives Emily and her friends around, they’ll sit side by side, texting other friends instead of talking to each other.
Since text messaging has increased in popularity, teens have become accustomed to the idea that every one of their friends is available, all the time. Emily’s phone sometimes takes a minute to respond to text messages, and she says her friends get anxious and send her texts asking, “R U there?”
“It’s all about immediate gratification, and this generation, because of text messaging, is growing up believing that everyone is at their beck and call,” says Gilda Carle, a New York-based counselor for teens. Carle worries that the trend will ultimately result in a generation that’s impatient and dependent on peers.