Yack, yack, yack

Finally, I succumbed and agreed to adding unlimited texting to our wireless plan. Succumbed is the key word here, because I have no desire to type out words on little bitty buttons when I can open up my mouth and accomplish the same task. My fourteen year old daughter has been begging me for a week to get texting, promising all sorts of exaggerated promises. Promises, promises, the real reason I relented, is because she really is a good kid, and doesn't ask for much.

It is spring break in our neck of the woods, so she got a lot of practice using those little bitty buttons on her phone. Her friend Mindy texted her from the beach in San Diego and Matt from the ski slopes in Colorado. I watched as she typed in all the mundane info of her day and waited to hear about what they had for breakfast, and lunch, and dinner. She typed as we walked through the zoo and sent pictures of the manatees to everyone. Back and forth...all week long.

I was curious about just how many messages a teenage girl could make in five days. So together we looked up the online day to day tally. Before I loaded the page I said to her that I bet she sent 800 messages. She didn't believe me. I loaded the page...841 messages sent and just as many returned. Now, I know that it is a new toy to play with and that she was home all week, but really...

I thought about it awhile. Just how many little blurbs do all of us send out each day in every form of communication? Most of my communication with my daughters is in a word here and there. A few times a day, meals, for instance, we have longer conversations. My mom calls me several times a day. Sometimes she leaves messages on my answering machine. I talk to my sister and a good friend almost every day. What about the gal at the grocery checkout? The people you work with, etc. I wonder if we were to type in all those messages, rather than speaking them, just how many we would have at the end of the week? Maybe not as many as a teenager, but quite a few. Hmm.