Using Some Cell Phones for Text Messages a Hot Trend for Teenagers

Jul. 25–Marci A. Walley was watching a movie with her friends when she received a few text messages from her boyfriend, Samuel L. Reppert, who was camping at the time.

“im going out fishing, then were going out 2 eat. then ill text you back l8r when we get bac 2 the tent.”

Marci, 15, of Sinking Spring, replied via text messages to her 16-year-old boyfriend to keep from disturbing others during the movie.

She said she sends about 20 text messages a day. Over the span of two days she received 55 text messages, all of which she sent a reply.

Marci is part of a trend of youngsters who find text messaging more alluring than talking because no one can overhear them, a computer isn’t needed and parents won’t know what they are talking about.

While parents pay the cell phone bills, teenagers become addicted to the back and forth chatter that is sometimes used like note passing in school or for entire conversations that can sometimes cost 10 cents a message.

When Marci was 13, her mother disabled text messaging on Marci’s cell phone. Marci and her sister, Nikki, had been going over their text messaging limits costing their mom an extra few hundred dollars on the cell phone bills.

Dianne J. Behm, 46, Marci’s mom, said she warned her daughters before taking away the text messaging.

Behm said she initially had a plan with Verizon for the minimum amount of text messaging thinking her daughters would not need them. However, her daughters went over their text message limit.

“When my friends (and I ) were getting cell phones, we all thought (text messaging) was the cool thing to do,” Marci said.

Monica M. Miller, 17, said she’s had a cell phone for two years and always found text messaging a lot more fun.

When she would go over her limit, her parents would make her pay the overcharges on the bills.

Monica said she has entire conversations with text messages, sometimes 50 messages long. She now has a plan where she has unlimited text messages a month.

“Text messaging is very addicting,” Monica said. “It’s easier than talking in person. (And you can) express yourself better in a text message.”

Alex D. Griffin, 15, of Shillington, got his first cell phone about three weeks ago.

Alex said he has a T-Mobile plan that allows him to have 1,000 text messages a month. However, he said he text messages about 300 times a day, sometimes staying up until 4 a.m.

William D. Griffin, Alex’s father, hasn’t received the first cell phone bill yet, but anticipates high overcharges.

Griffin said he warned his son about text messaging too much.

“I’ve already agreed to pay the standard stuff,” Griffin said. “If he goes over, I’ll keep the phone until he pays me back for the overcharges.”

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