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 ...
Someone needs to tell dad he is a moron
Unlimted text & parental controls should have been done before he gave his pecious the phone.
I sign into my account all the time to see when my son texts and to what numbers. And he is 18. He says it creeps him out. I say open your own account. Must not creep him out that much.
Well, in the Obamanation, opposible thumbs would be overrated anyway...
Excellent.
That has got to be the most stupid question a grown man and father could ever ask. I would expect a question like that from a three year old child.
Is the moron able to walk and talk at the same time?
I am trying to compose words to express how someone could be that stupid.
Whatever, but if your tiny brain is able to understand anything, and I’ll make it simple all though there will not be stick figure to assist you, Here is a hint.
THE THE F’ING PHONE AWAY FROM HER YOU IDIOT.
I buy a $25 card every 3 months and from that I pay $4.99 a month for 200 texts. I have the $1 a day plan which I rarely use and just text, mostly with my mom. I also get Cardinals and Weather Channel texts.
I always have some left to rollover each month.
I will eventually upgrade to a phone with the keyboard and one I can have real songs for ring tones. lol
my 12 year old daughter is the only girl her age without a phone. she asked for one, i said NO! end of story.
Get her a ‘Pay as you go” phone..and make her pay for it.
You said — So she can’t text
—
Big Deal... LOL...
Shop around for a muzzle, too, to put on her mouth... :-)
There’s a lot of stupid stuff posted here, on Free Republic, so that’s not hard to do... LOL...
You said — I don’t know why people think this is such an odd concept.
—
Yeah, it’s because a lot of people haven’t bothered “thinking it through” and don’t realize what’s going on with this kind of communication.
Some do use it as immediate conversation, and it can be that way *if* the other person is available at that time. Then you can get an answer, if you were wanting one, at that moment. Many times there’s no answer required, as you were indicating, too. It’s simply “informative” and nothing more.
It’s sort of like an “e-mail” — except that e-mail usually has a long “turn-around time” than text messaging. You might expect an e-mail back in anywhere from a day to a few weeks (at least with some people I know... LOL...). But, with text messaging, if you do expect a response, you will get one at the moment that the receiver has a free moment and can break away from whatever else they are doing (a bit more immediate than e-mail, and more convenient).
I never really did use text messaging at all, in a previous cel phone that I had (and I had the same one phone for about six years and never used it that way during that time). I didn’t want it, because it was tedious to use with that standard interface that they had.
But, when I got an iPhone (when they first came out), it was a lot more convenient and super easy to use and the interface was a delight to use. Thus, I did start using it and I have found it to be quite convenient.
So, there’s nothing — at all — wrong with text messaging and it’s quite a time saver for many things that you may do.
If I find that a series of text messaging messages are becoming “tedious” in a “conversation” (which is more immediate and on-going), I’ll just ask to go to a “conversation” on the phone instead of continuing to text message.
Sometimes a person can text message in a situation where they can’t talk directly on the phone. Thus, if they can text message but can’t talk and I need to actually “talk it out” instead of continuing to text message, I will ask them to call me right back when they finish what they’re doing at that time.
So, it is quite versatile and useful...
Is there any doubt that this will be the result when the government creates "free" programs such as healthcare? Excessive use of a free service, just because it's free.
The retail business where I work used to have free cookies on hand for all the shoppers. We had to discontinue the service because all the retired people would loiter in the store, eating cookies all day.
You said — Also, using Squid, every email that comes into the house and goes out of the house is copied to my email account.
—
Well, that one is going to be hard to enforce, as far as “e-mail” is concerned. It doesn’t take a super-genius to get those free e-mail accounts and for someone to say “write me at this e-mail address”. And then they’ve got two accounts, basically — which is one you know about and one you don’t know about... LOL...
And if they are suspecting any further monitoring, all it takes is using another computer somewhere else and checking e-mail. I mean, it doesn’t take any more than a “dumb kid” to figure out how to get around those things... :-) ... if they are intent on getting “some messages” out unmonitored...
I mean, libraries all have computers for the public, including the kids. Schools have them, too, and with various stages of blocking and/or monitoring. Friends, at their houses have web access and heck, you can just walk into some coffee shops and/or some restaurants, no purchases needed and walk up to an unmonitored computer and sign on anywhere to get access to the Internet.
There’s just way to many ways to get access to the Internet out of your own control to be able to monitor things, when a kid knows that they are being monitored. It’s like “falling off a log” for them to get whatever they want, anywhere else.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
And then you said — 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.
If I was at work and I wanted to access certain websites that I did not want monitored, I would simply pop my iPhone out and get right on the web, and there would be nothing that anyone at work or the IT Department could do about it.
I could get all my e-mail there, with my standard e-mail accounts, I could get my web-mail there, without being monitored, I could access every last single website I wanted to, without being monitored at work. So, all it takes is someone with a knowledge to be able to do so.
Heck! If I wanted to really do some work there, I would bring my own laptop in to work and simply get on the Internet that way, by either tethering to my iPhone or getting an Internet account, via the Macbook that I have, through a wireless device on the Macbook.
Again, all it takes is, for one, being aware of some monitoring — and then — “stepping around” the monitoring with no one being any the wiser, in what I was doing.
It’s actually *nothing* to step around it and do whatever you want....
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
And then you said — They can do whatever they want.
—
And I can do whatever I want, and no one will find out, either... LOL... (it’s just *way to easy* to step around that kind of monitoring...)
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
And also, you said — 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.
—
That’s *nothing* either. If someone really wants to “step around” that, too, they can. You simply go down to some computer that is provided for you to sign on to the Internet without requiring any ID or any “request” on your part. I know of a lot of computers, around in this city (and any city) where I can get on to the Internet and send or receive or do anything I want and no one ever bothers asking who you are.
Furthermore, you can bring your own laptop and sign in at different places without any ID or sign-in process or anything like that. Heck! You can sit out in the parking lot and do it and no one needs to even see you *in the place* at all. You can sit out at the curb in the your car, along with a long line of other cars, parked along the curb and you can have your laptop in your lap and no one even knows you’re online.
And furthermore — if you’re really concerned about being ID’d by a particular laptop, heck — you can cruise down neighborhood streets and quickly get online and send or receive something on someone else’s IP number and they don’t even know you’re online at their house. I mean there are so many WiFi access points open at various houses in neighborhoods, it’s amazing.
I’ve got WiFi accounts at a couple of places (businesses) where I can sign in, but sometimes, I’ve out in areas where they don’t have those access points. And if I need to check something quickly or send something, I’ll just take a detour through a neighborhood and in less than five minutes, I’ll be online and send whatever I want and check whatever I want and be on my way again. I’ve done that lots of times. And I do it when I can’t get my standard access points that I’ve paid for.
Any person can do all that and no one would ever know who was doing it, as you move around and travel around. If you are really paranoid about something, you just never go back to the same place twice. I’ve never been that paranoid or have been paranoid about it at all. I just know you can do that, if you want to.
I drive down the highway and I’ve got my laptop marking and tagging open access points along with way with GPS and mapping them and I can come back to them any time I want to. It’s no big deal.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
And lastly you said — We all need to know our limitations.
And, also, we all need to know that there are no limitations for those who want to step through what it takes to do so...
Net 10.
You said — Excessive use of a free service, just because it’s free.
—
The companies don’t care, because even with “unlimited service” on the text messaging, they’re making so much money from that service, that you can text message all day long and all night long and they just laugh all the way to the bank....
There’s no problem, as far as those companies are concerned to provide *unlimited text messaging* service.
So, there’s *no excessive use* there, as far as their profits are concerned... LOL...
That article was about an account that was *unlimited*...
There were no extra charges.
You said — THE THE F’ING PHONE AWAY FROM HER YOU IDIOT.
—
Why take it away? I don’t see any good reason...
Did you read the whole post? I was making the analogy that a free service would be abused because it is free, and that would include healthcare, if it gets passed the way Obama wants it.
You said — Just one Dad’s story. Your mileage may vary.
—
Now, that was the most sensible thing that I’ve seen here, on this topic... LOL...
Do certain things at certain times and take care of things that you should take care of first. Now, that’s making an adult, instead of simply “take the phone away” — which doesn’t really accomplish that much in the long run....
You said — 14,000 is too many
—
Not really, if you understand what is going on. You might as well tell your daughter (or son) that giggling or laughing is only okay if she or he does so — so many times a month, but not any more than that... LOL...
I mean... if I did this...
LOL
:-)
Ya
K
:-O
I’ve got five text messages right there, and I can do all five in less than 60 seconds... In fact, you can probably have a teenager doing about 10 or more text messages a minute, if they are doing so with a few people.
That’s no big deal, actually... (I’ve seen it happen... LOL...)
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