Posted on 06/12/2009 3:04:45 PM PDT by lewisglad
This isn't exactly proud papa news: My daughter, Reina, who recently turned 13, just racked up 14,528 text messages in one month.
Thank God she's too young to drive.
Given that she's had a cell phone for less than six months, and she is supposed to share the phone with her 14-year-old brother (and use it mainly for emergencies) — well, I'm speechless.
Or should I say, textless?
Her mother, Manako, recently got the phone bill from AT&T. Only 23 pages of the bill came with the bill mailed to her home in Lake Forest.
Manako went online and looked at the PDF version of the bill. The PDF file, covering the period from Nov. 27 to Dec. 26, totaled 440 pages.
OK, the bill included charges for two other phones, including one belonging to Reina's 22-year-old sister, Hana, who accounted for a comparatively modest 7,101 text messages during the same period. Older sister Marina, 24, accounted for a measly (whew!) 700.
But still…A 440-page phone bill? Thankfully, Manako signed up all of them for unlimited texting.
If not, the 20 cents per text for Reina would have totaled $2,905.60.
That's a lot of house chores.
•••
I'm no math whiz, but I did some quick calculations on Reina's thumb-numbing total.
Assuming my daughter slept an average of eight hours during the billing period (she usually sleeps more), that works out to 484 text messages a day — or a text message every two minutes she was awake.
Could AT&T have made some mistake?
Wishful thinking. It's all true, based on the PDF file I reviewed.
I definitely am not LMAO (laughing my, er, butt off).
One small consolation: The 14,528 total includes text messages both sent and received.
Really, though. Is that any consolation?
.
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
He’s never heard of unlimited text messaging?
Ok, didn’t know that.
In my house, I pay for the internet connection. I pay for the equipment. I pay for the maintenance and software.
I have one computer that provides a hardware firewall and a wireless network to the children’s computers.
However, it also provides a web proxy, so that only the web sites that I have approved ahead of time and have programmed into a whitelist are accessible on the network (DansGuardian is the software).
Also, using Squid, every email that comes into the house and goes out of the house is copied to my email account.
The equipment is mine.
The software is mine.
The connection is mine.
And those of you who know anything about your IT departments where you work, they are monitoring where you spend your time, also. Some of you may not even be able to log onto certain web sites because your IT department has designated them as “hate” sites or pornography sites.
Besides that, they can take random screenshots of what you’re doing during the day. If somebody is using a lot of bandwith, the IT department will zero in on that and see what’s going on.
It’s their equipment.
It’s their connection.
They can do whatever they want.
If you want to surf anywhere you want, get your own equipment, your own connection, and pay for your own maintenance.
Even then, your ISP is required by law to provide information to investigative authorities that have a court order to investigate your internet activity for terrorism, kiddie porn, etc.
I remember a Dirty Harry movie where Harry discovered that his crooked Police Commissioner boss was responsible for the murders of a number of policemen. The Police Commissioner had hired hit ment to kill Harry. Unbeknownst to the crooked Commissioner, the hit men had rigged Harry’s car with a bomb.
Harry confronted the Commissioner with evidence that the Commmissioner himself was the crook behind the deaths on the police force. The Commissioner pulled a gun on Harry and commandeered Harry’s car. Since the commissioner had hired hit men to kill Harry, he didn’t want to implicate himself directly in Harry’s murder, so he didn’t want to kill harry right there, figuring his hit men would do it soon enough.
As the Commissioner drove away, the car blew up, killing the Commissioner. As the flaming pieces of wreckage fell around him, Harry looked on and said, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
We all need to know our limitations.
You could always get them no texting, or tell them THEY will be responsible for ALL texting charges, and then back it up with a bill payable in cash or hard labor. Their choice.
“So she can’t text”
I don’t agree. Texting isn’t the worst thing a kid can do. Most of the messages were probably minimal like.....”hey”......”k”.......”whazup”. Unless she isn’t getting her chores done, or isn’t doing her school work, why worry about it. This is how teens socialize now. Cell phones are great for keeping track of your kids, even as young as 12 or 13. Almost all of the kids in my son’s middle school have cell phones. I have 5 kids and 2 on the way. I promise you that too much texting is the least of problems with teens.
Whoa. Take a Xanax dude.
Bingo. I can send and receive texts that say nothing more than "call me later" or "be at work at 7:00" and I don't have to interrupt someone or be interrupted with a phone call.
I don't know why people think this is such an odd concept.
Don’t nitpick, surely you got my point. Why should his kid worry when someone else is paying for it and laughing while he does.
Are you always so argumentitive?
Maybe she is engaging in some thoughtful discussion about important matters of the day. The transcripts of these text messages could become important texts....like Benjamin Franklin’s letters or Anne Frank’s diary or something.
My solution was one that would probably shock most so called parents today being weaned on Dr. Spock moronic teachings
I called the phone company, canceled my service until she paid the bill in full.
It took her three months
“I promise you that too much texting is the least of problems with teens.”
14,000 is too many
My grandson gets a 300 minute prepaid card every 60 days.
When that’s used up he is S.O.L.
LOL - I don’t actually have a daughter... or a son.
But that’s a good approach; I like it, thank you.
>Nothing on a camera phone is immune to hackers, many people have learned the hard way on that
Right, that’s why I said that the camera-free cell phones should be more popular, considering the number of worksites which prohibit photography.
I could be wrong, but he doesn’t look to me like a Palin voter.
I’ve done that, using that implement. Feels gooood.
Yes.
Do want to argue about that? LOL
Divide 14,528 by a Cat of Nine Tails and have at it.
yeah it is probably too many, but it would be easy to limit without taking the phone. Like I said, if she isn’t doing the things that she is supposed to be doing, it is a big problem. If she isn’t listening to dad it is a big problem. The texting itself isn’t a big problem. They have conversations by texting. That means that each statement counts as one text. IMO it isn’t any different than my hanging out with the guys on the street corner, or my sisters talking on the phone with their friends. To teens, their social life is everything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.