Texting: Efficient, trendy, addictive
— -- Sending oodles of daily text messages has become insanely popular, with many of us spending way less time talking on the phone than we used to.
We asked USA TODAY readers and folks on the street on a recent visit to Atlanta to tell us about the volume of text messages they peck out every day. The answers might surprise you. They range from 20 a day for Elizabeth Thorp of Bethesda, Md. (who says a text "gets a faster response than e-mail") to 100 for Amber English from Atlanta. ("That's how I keep up with everybody," English told us. "I don't have time to talk on the phone.")
We also talked to students at Georgia State University and customers at The Varsity drive-in in Atlanta.
So why so many daily texts?
It's efficient
"I spend a lot of time in situations where speaking on the phone isn't convenient. Maybe I'm at a concert or in a crowded room. Texting has allowed me to be able to communicate better in situations where standard conversation isn't possible," writes USA TODAY reader Benton Boice, 24, of Kansas City.
"Texting is so much faster than speaking, and to be honest, we accomplish so much more in a few texts than we would in a conversation," says Martha Neff, from Cleveland, also in an e-mail.
"It's simple and fast to send a text message, whereas many of us are working and wouldn't be able to step out regularly for phone calls," writes Debbie Miller of Orange County, Calif. "It's really easy to multitask/do other things while solidifying dinner plans (or whatever the case may be) via texting. It's also easy in terms of alerting multiple people at once of certain news."
It's trendy
"I have two boys away at college and they'd rather text their mom than call her," says Theresa McCellan of Atlanta.
"I've got kids, so this is how we communicate," says Rick Atkins, also in Atlanta. He says he sends out between 100 to 200 text messages daily.
It's addictive
Stacey Doran, an Atlanta-area mother of two, sends texts while in business meetings, in the car, walking down the street. "I won't text at church. I need to not text while driving. I've gotten better." She even texts while attending a movie, she says. "Sometimes it won't wait."
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Alternative text services
The wireless carriers love text messages as a source of revenue.
Verizon Wireless, for instance, charges 20 cents per text, or $5 a month for 250 texts or $20 for unlimited.
A host of new "free" text services have popped up to fill in the gap, with apps that work on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Here are the two most popular (highest ranked in iTunes Top 100 Free Apps chart.)
—textPlus: Gives you a free phone number for texting, lets you link the app with your Facebook friends, and offers group chats as well. Works with Apple and Android mobile phones, but not Blackberry (need to dbl check this.)
—TextNow: Similar offers, with free phone numbers to text and be texted to, via iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Android and Blackberry phones.
Apple recently introduced an end run around carriers text charges with iMessage, an Apple to Apple private network for sending texts and videos for free. The service is part of the IO5 software upgrade introduced in October.
•What's your favorite under-the-radar app ever? The one you couldn't live without? Tell us about it for a chance to be featured on USA TODAY.
•On Monday's Talking Your Tech: Mad Men's Christina Hendrichs tells about her new video game role.
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E-mail us at techcomments@usatoday.com. Or reach out to Jefferson Graham directly:
E-mail him at jgraham@usatoday.com
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