Teen Texts Her Way to Tickets
By Jesse James DeConto, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.
Jun. 8–RALEIGH — Sixteen-year-old Lauren Schwartz let out a girlish scream after she won four tickets to see the Jonas Brothers at Walnut Creek on July 30.
“What would you say to Joe Jonas if you met him?” the G105 DJ named Geller asked her.
“Oh my God,” said Lauren, with Joe and his two brothers on her T-shirt. “Marry me!”
The teen had spent a grueling couple of hours hammering away with her thumbs on a little hand-held computer — the Zipit Wireless Messenger — trying to type faster and more accurately than dozens of contestants gathered at Crabtree Valley Mall.
Lauren signed up for six of 10 preliminary rounds and finally won a Zipit device and a pass into the final round. She faced a mother and son, another mother and daughter and two sisters.
It took her one minute and 17 seconds to type the sentence: “Try not to think about the itch on UR nose right now. if u take UR hand off the keypad, it’s game over!”
The Zipit Speed IMing Contest was a ploy to market the new technology that allows teens to use Wi-Fi hotspots to connect to the Internet for instant-messaging, text-messaging and, soon, social networking sites — without the complete mobile Web access that worries some parents.
“You can’t get a message from a stranger,” said Zipit vice president John Moore. “You can’t get on an Internet site your parents don’t approve.”
The Zipit keypad combines the small buttons of a cell phone with the keyboard layout of a computer.
The contest was the first for Zipit, based in Greenville, S.C. Zipit plans another instant-messaging contest in Chicago later this month.
Lauren almost didn’t get to compete. She convinced her mother to drive from Chapel Hill to North Raleigh to shop at the Forever XXI clothing store. The contest was her real motive, but they were supposed to be at a party at the same time.
With a little help from event promoter Katie Brown, Lauren convinced her mom to leave her at the mall and take her friend to the party.
“I’ve been rooting for her ever since,” said Brown. “How can you turn a girl down when she’s wearing a Jonas Brothers T-shirt?”
jesse.deconto@newsobserver.com or (919) 932-8760
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