<p>Since unlimited texting on our plan is for in network texts only, I found myself asking whether a new friend used Verizon before asking his/her name. </p>
<p>I am concerned that so much talking is being replaced by texting, not the time involved. Hours of talking on the phone with friends was common before texts.</p>
<p>I’m with 3togo on this one. We told our high school age kids that they may text away, as long as they pay for it. Guess what? They decided they didn’t want to fork over the money to pay for texting. They are FAR from social outcasts because of their mean parents.</p>
<p>^ tried this for a mos., at first AFTER the fact, then for about two weeks after we switched over, but before we got a bill that reflected the per text charges. The first month alone, my son owed us more than two hundred dollars. At $15/wk allowance, he is about 4 mos into his debt. I couldn’t just get rid of it because I really depend on it to communicate with us.</p>
<p>The bill included some ringbones, We shut down internet access.</p>
<p>Just checked our last bill. He had 10,921 Msg/kb/ Mb used.</p>
<p>
wow!</p>
<p>Just recently went to unlimited family here.</p>
<p>We are on the basic Verizon family plan with the lowest number of monthly minutes and never seem to go over that, even though we use the cell phones as our primary phone lines. We have learned to make most of our longer calls at night or weekends when they don’t count against the monthly total. Being a belt and suspenders sort, I still keep a land line (one powered by the phone company via a pair of copper wires, not on a cable TV or fiber optic connection) as an emergency backup and for more frequent use on the rare occasions that we start closing in on our monthly allotment of minutes.</p>
<p>Daughter, wife and I do not use text messaging - we would rather talk to someone if things need to be done in real time, or email if they do not. We find the interruptions of constant texting to be an annoyance. Son is on the 400 message per month plan and has only exceeded that once or twice. He tends not to initiate text messages, but has friends who do and he will respond to them when texted.</p>
<p>So, yeah, I think 6000 messages in a month is way too many.</p>
<p>I’m a college student, and I have sent about 50 and received about 80 texts since October. (Plus a few that I deleted when my inbox filled up.) I just don’t use it much, and neither do most of my friends. We talk on the phone, leave messages over facebook, video chat. Texts are usually for quick messages where it might make more sense to send a quick sentence than to call. I can’t stand it when people text 24/7- a relative of mine was texting at the Thanksgiving dinner table, and we also found out that she’d been texting during her own bat mitzvah service. That’s ridiculous. I may be glued to my computer sometimes, but at least when I sign off I can go and focus on other things.</p>
<p>We pay for unlimited text for a family of five.</p>
<p>Husband doesn’t know how to text.</p>
<p>Me - I use it on occasion.</p>
<p>College senior - no land line </p>
<p>College sophomore - no land line</p>
<p>Hs senior</p>
<p>Combined, we don’t come anywhere near 6,000 texts per month. So yea, I fall on the “too many” side.</p>
<p>My son’s was the highest of the family this month at 2100, but he hardly talks on the phone and doesn’t have a landline. Daughter and husband each were about 800 text and I was about 350. I know when the kids and I text, we will respond to a text with just an ok. We can go back and forthwith several text in a day. It does seem like a lot of text, but when you realize how many back and forth messages can go on with a single conversation, you can see how the numbers add up.</p>
<p>i’m in college, and depending on the month, i send/receive anywhere from 2000 to 3500 texts. i honestly don’t think it’s a lot…there’s plenty of time i’m not texting. however, if i’m having a conversation with someone, we can send each other 20 texts in half an hour.</p>
<p>i guess it all depends on the person. but, my family of 5 has an unlimited texting plan from t-mobile for $10/month total. we got it years ago and have never changed it. if we tried getting it now, the same plan would be probably triple what we pay :)</p>
<p>Well 6000 might only be 2000 sent and 4000 incoming if her friends are persistant… but it’s alot. D1 not a big texter in HS, texting more now in college. She was 400 total in HS and more like 1000 now. D2 is a big texter, but she never goes over 2000 total. And I have found that many of those are one word texts. A conversation can be: Hey, whats up? Nothing. Whats up with you? Nothing. But in texts it goes Hey–Hey–Sup–nothn-- u?–nothn. That is 6 texts for EACH as each gets tallied for 3 in and 3 out, and that takes a only a few seconds. </p>
<p>I used to get so irritated when we had free minutes and I was paying for texts. Now, unlimited family texts…</p>
<p>Believe it or not, it costs companies almost nothing to handle text traffic…</p>
<p>iPhone is great for text message. It keeps a thread, so you could keep track of the conversation. It’s good if you are having a fight (oh, I mean discussion) with someone, you could read it over and over again later.</p>
<p>So I guess I am in the minority. My daughter usually has over 6000 texts each month. I routinely have more than 2000. She is in college now, but her numbers are the same as when she was in high school. She doesn’t let it affect her grades or her studying. For me, it’s easier and quicker to text her a quick question than it is to call her. She can also text without disrupting others around her. </p>
<p>Just remember that all texts are in the count - incoming and outgoing. Also, it doesn’t matter whether it is a long reply or a single word - it is still a single text. </p>
<p>I personally don’t have an issue with it. Generally speaking, I think that in time, minutes will decrease and texts will increase . . .it’s just quicker and more efficient.</p>
<p>I checked our statement from last month and it looks like my D also had around 6000 texts last month. She is a wonderful girl who gets straight A’s and participates in ECs. Most of her texting occurs while multitasking (including while we’re eating dinner as a family, so we limit that). Otherwise, I’m not planning to limit her texting, unless I see any adverse effects from it.</p>
<p>They are so fast at it, and the average text is so short, that they might send and also get 25 messages in 5 minutes. 50 texts sounds like a lot of wasted time to those of us who hunt for the keys and try to pack the maximum into each message.
That said, 6000 is a lot. My nimble-thumb D (who can do it without even seeming to look) only uses about 600 per month.</p>
<p>I worry more that this is replacing actual conversations. When you are on the phone with someone, there is more going on than just the words exchanged. You can really connect with how they are feeling and the meaning behind the words.
OTOH, talking on the phone wastes more time usually because of the social forms that you have to follow. You don’t just hang up once you have the information you want.</p>
<p>It depends on how they text it too. One of my daughter’s friend texted one word at a time. I laughed when she told me. But he was only a 5th grader so apparently he did not know better.</p>
<p>I predict a condition called “text thumb.” Maybe thumbs will evolve to have little pointy ends better for little tiny keyboards.</p>
<p>My son can text while looking me in the eye and having a conversation. I caught him doing this once, hands a little under the table . Am I the only one with a male child in the 6 k or more texting club? I have to admit, probably 1k of the text to him where from me. I text him from my bedroom rather than yelling up the stairs. He answeres MUCH faster that way!</p>
<p>Haha, wow. I get probably five texts and one phone call in a six month period.</p>
<p>Just got our phone bill. S1, a college senior, only had 400 texts, S2, a college freshman, had somewhere around 1000. HIs highest total ever has been around 1800. I thought that was a lot until I read this thread and the article in the newspaper about the eigth grader in CA. who had 14,000 in one month</p>