<p>D sends/receives over 6,000 text messages a month. We have the unlimited texting plan. Still, that high a number bothers me. I am unsure of how much of an issue I should make of this if it doesn’t interfere with her school work. I am wondering how many text messages most other social teenagers send/receive per month, and what guidelines, if any, other parents impose.</p>
<p>Six thousand is too many. My D never puts her phone down, and she’s less than 2500. How are the grades?</p>
<p>Look at it this way:</p>
<p>Assuming 30 days in a month, that’s 200 texts a day.</p>
<p>Over a 24 hour period, that’s a bit over 8 an hour.</p>
<p>If she gets 8 hours of sleep, then it’s 12.5 texts per hour.</p>
<p>That’s an average of one text about every 5 minutes.</p>
<p>Imagine if your land line rang once every 5 minutes for a 16 hour period each day over the course of the month.</p>
<p>Could you develop any sort of continuity in your routine?</p>
<p>Seems like data overload to me.</p>
<p>But that’s just my $.02.</p>
<p>My friend’s daughter sent/received more than 10,000 texts in a single month last year (and it was reflected in her poor grades), but she can’t hold a candle to this champion texter:</p>
<p>[OMG</a>! Clermont girl texts 35,000 messages in 1 month – OrlandoSentinel.com](<a href=“http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-text1409jan14,0,5867250.story]OMG”>http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/orl-text1409jan14,0,5867250.story)</p>
<p>And I’m still shaking my head about the man from India mentioned in the article. Is it even possible to send/receive that many texts?</p>
<p>Thank you. Your 2 cents is exactly what I’m looking for. I’ve just done some online research and found out that the average number of texts per month for 13 to 17 year olds is 1742. D’s grades have been ok, but in my view, that doesn’t make the obsessive text messaging ok. I’m trying to figure out what a fair number of texts per month would be.</p>
<p>About 1500 per month. My daughter was doing a lot of texting, especially when I thought she should have been sleeping (12-3am). I had a talk with her about it and I noticed it usually stop around 12am. While they are in class, it is also distracting for them to be texting. You could go online to check out the usage and who they are texting.</p>
<p>Ha, that newspaper article is about one of my good friend’s sister, and apparently she’s going to be on Good Morning America this week for it. She seems normal if you meet her, she gets good grades and is on the cheerleading team. I’m still not sure about that guy from India, though.</p>
<p>Try to understand how texting is being used. If texting is used to carry on a back-and-forth conversation, you can easily use dozens of texts, or even more, in a single conversation. I notice this with my daughter, who usings texting instead of actually calling and talking to the person. This inflates the number of messages, but not necessarily the time using the phone.</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that people texting HER shows up, and there’s nothing she can do about it. Not that my son is “innocent”, but this really is in issue for him/me, and why we went unlimited.</p>
<p>I don’t usually use more than 800 (sent and received) per month. I sent 1000 last month because I didn’t have enough minutes to be calling my girlfriend, and I have unlimited this month that I am taking advantage of – but six thousand? That’s unfathomable. I hope you get things sorted out. Maybe you could put her on a different plan, one that stops message inflow and output after she reaches a certain number so that she learns how to manage them wisely.</p>
<p>Your post got me curious. Text messaging doesn’t work where I live (so my two daughters didn’t have access to it in HS…their cells didn’t even work in our community). However, they use text messaging a LOT in college. So, I just looked at the last few months phone bill (we did get unlimited texting once we saw how much they used it at college). My younger one apparently uses it more than the older one. She is 20. I looked over the past four months and her in/out messages total anywhere from 800 per month to 1300 per month. The older one (22) never had over 400 total. I thought they used it a LOT but they don’t hold a candle to your D with 6000 and she is not even in college. So, I think 6000 is way too much. Also, you mention her using it late at night. While our cells didn’t work in our house when my kids were in HS…I know with my younger D, after a certain time at night, I had to remove all phones and laptops from her room so she would go to sleep. Not an issue for other D but just saying, you could take the cell at 11 PM on a school night.</p>
<p>^^^ I completely agree with Hunt.</p>
<p>I have never texted (it wasn’t a big thing at my college, because everyone uses the school’s special email system to communicate), but it’s similar with email. One conversation can have hundreds of messages, especially if the response is something like “OK” or a smiley face. I would imagine this is even more true for texts. Sometimes, people just like to share what’s going on in their day as it happens, like funny or interesting things they see or hear, etc.</p>
<p>I usually get about 1500 per month and sent out about 1000.
I think 6,000 is a lot.</p>
<p>D is no longer allowed to have her cell in her room at night or when she is doing homework. (She does check for text messages in between assignments, though.) Also, she is on a sports team, so she has a very busy schedule. It isn’t as though she has tons of free time to sit around and text. She is an extremely fast texter.</p>
<p>Still, I think texting consumes time that can be spent in better ways. I understand that this is an important way that today’s teens socialize and I am trying to be sensitive to that. I am aware, as Hunt points out, that actually talking on the phone with a friend is considered outdated. Texting gives D the ability to communicate with a broad base of friends. Yet I feel that the constant contact with such short messages gives teens the sense that they are closer than they really are. I know I’m not wording this right.</p>
<p>In our house it’s zero … but that is a trick answer … we won’t pay for texting or for a lot of cell phone minutes … it’s a luxury and the kids can pay for it if they really want it. None of kids have decided they need texting enough they will pay for it … one of our kids used the cell enough s/he had to pay us monthly for the extra minutes a couple months and then decided using a (free) old fashioned phone line wasn’t so bad. My kids have not become social outcasts (yet). I know our experience is way off the OPs experience … but I brought it up since the OP has made texting free it is MUCH easier to text 6000 messages then if the kid had to pay … and I’d think the texting probably would regulate itself in a big time way if the kid has some economic skin in the game. We do not tend to set limits on our kids activities (other than late night) … we use market like conditions to guide their decisions … they pay monetarily, they need to get OK grades, etc.</p>
<p>I agree with 3togo. I, personally, would much rather have a phone conversation than one through text, but my friends generally prefer texting to talking, no matter how irksome I find it. I also pay for my own texts, which is likely why I use so few. It helps to restrict, definitely.</p>
<p>I don’t mind texting in college as in a lot of ways it is needed given how kids are spread out and make arrangements and so forth. One of my kids (the one who had between 800-1300 combined in/out per month) lives in NYC and the texting is the quick way to get the messages out as her schedule is really full and the phone is off a lot. So, it makes sense the way they use texting in college (though I get sending messages, I don’t quite get the conversations via text when they can just call, but whatever).</p>
<p>I also don’t think kids always realize how much they have texted. At each billing statement, I take my son’s text #'s and divide them into the days of the month so he can see how much he actually is texting - which I try to equate into “how much time is wasted”. </p>
<p>True that many of the texts are short - or things like “are you at school yet” “I’m on my way” - stuff like that. </p>
<p>But we also have rules about no texting during mealtimes and I strongly encourage him (and he often does) to put aside the phone when he is working on a paper or a hard assignment. I think yes, it can be very distracting to what they are doing.</p>
<p>Our experience was similar to 3togo’s. We only had one cell prior to the kids in college for the wife as an emergency use phone. We signed up for a four phone limited minute calling plan, that also allowed 50 texts per line. Monthly usage for both cell minutes and texts was always weighted to d’s line.</p>
<p>d’s usage on phone minutes exceeded plan limits on two occasions which resulted in per minute additional charges which she paid for. While in college, her texts consistently exceeded her free limit, and she also paid these charges. Son never came close to exceeding phone or text limits.</p>
<p>As both kids are degreed, but still living at home, we’ve kept them on the family plan and continue to cover the basic costs. I did bump up the plan to allow for 400 free texts on d’s line, but she prepaid me for the upcharge for a year. </p>
<p>Wife and I both see the cell phone as a convenience or emergency type use. The kids see it differently. We never get their personal calls on our land line anymore, a convenience and blessing. My personal feeling is that if they have issues with the restrictions on our family plan, they can opt out and sign up for their own on their dime.</p>
<p>Again, that’s me and a different age of “kid” on the plan. We did not have the plan while s was in high school; d had it it her last year or two.</p>
<p>I got 400/month combined 
Don’t really gp over that by more than 5-10 ever, but unlimited plan for me is like 10 bucks more. Might get it.</p>