Text Messages Impoverishing America's Youth?!

Well, it is not quite the Credit Card crisis of the 80's, but the wave of cell phone Text Messaging is starting to have an impact on the debt load carried by the teens of America. The New York times has up an article that examines the phenomenon and compares it to the sticker-shock that struck users of the first wave of cell phones for voice calls.

Last month, though, Mr. Albert's habit caught up with him. Only $80 of his $400 cellphone charges were his father's, and most of his own, he said, were for text-messaging....Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging's pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills when they get involved in keypad conversations that involve hundreds, even thousands, of messages a month. The results are angry confrontations with parents, long-term payment plans and the loss of cellphone privileges.

This one was pretty much inevitable, once cell companies decided to sell text messaging as equivilent to Instant Messenger. Personally, I avoided text messaging as much as possible until I got my SideKick whose plan has unlimited text messaging. Now, I find myself using it constantly - easier than a phone call, gets to my target faster than e-mail - and not always paying attention to whom I am sending it. Verizon folks pay 2 cents to recieve a message and 10 cents to send one. That can add up quickly. Here's hoping some cell carrier "gets it" and starts offering texting as a free service. If so, they will see a HUGE influx of customers.