Teen sends 14,528 text messages in a single month

13-year-old Reina lives in California and like many teenagers her age, owns her own mobile phone. She also likes texting, which is nothing unusual, if not for the fact that she managed to rack up a staggering 14,528 text messages in a single month. Her dad, Greg Hardesty, noted that the online AT&T statement ran 440 pages.

Luckily, Hardesty has a phone plan for his daughter which allows for unlimited texting for just $30 a month. At 20 cents per message, the bill to AT&T would have worked out to $2,905.60 otherwise. Hardesty and his ex-wife have since restricted her from texting--after dinner.

A reporter for the Orange County Register who grilled Reina on her texting habit found out that she has a core of four other such texters around her age. Indeed, she was texting her best friend while at a karaoke birthday party recently who was sitting right next to her. Of course, another common use of text messaging by teens has to do with avoiding mobile calls from their parents.

A Nielsen study of mobile phone usage pegged the average number of monthly messages for 13 to 17 year olds at 1,742, while someone in the 45 year-old age group averages about 200. Personally, I average about 1,000 text messages per month. What about you? How many text messages do you send in one month?

For more information about the story:
- check out the article at New York Post

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