NFW. She didn't do it.

I got to sleep some nights feeling I've spent all day staring that the two inch square screen of my BlackBerry writing and answering dozens of emails and text messages. I've heard the device can be used as a phone as well but I am not certain I'll get to that functionality before the buttons are unreadable as the lettering has been worn off.

I am getting to the point, especially with the advent of intuitive typing (the completion of words before you actually type them based on a large dictionary stored in the BlackBerry), where I can whip out a fairly coherent message in less time than it takes a Trekkie to get to his seat and start a conversation in Klingon with his fellow geek on opening night of the latest Gene Roddenberry inspired flick. And I am slow compared to most teens, tweens and drug dealers and yesterday I asked a co-worker to schedule a meeting in kilt instead of July because, well, the keystrokes to type both words are the same. I pray he doesn't show in his Tartan colors.

I can't swallow the claim made on a Sacramento TV station's web site of a teen bragging she sent 300,000 text messages in one month. The math just doesn't calculate. There is no possible way this could be done. I am not going to do the cyphering for you there Jethro but, when you actually put pen to paper, you will see the reporter didn't put two and two together to arrive at a hoax. IMHO this girl and her BFFs are ROFLTAO at the dweeb from TV and, since mom is quoted in the story, there was a POS the whole time who is in on it.

More distrubing, the story fails this perfect opportunity to comment on the destructive potential this type of activity has for society. Interpersonal communication, rather than being enhanced by texting is suffering. You can't possibly convey cogent and complex thoughts to another person when your text is limited to 165 (or so, I don't really know the actual number) characters per message. I guess that is why in most real life conversations between teens they don't even say "Oh My God!" they use the letters O M G. For real! I kid you not.

Schools are finding it difficult to curb text messaging during classes. I am wondering if they should. It seems the ability to use an I-PHone is now a pre-requisite for college!

S2