A teenager in Orange County, California, has created a stir by managing to use a total of 14,528 text messages in one month, according to The Register.
Greg Hardesty, 45, has described himself as being ‘speechless’ at the number of texts his daughter Reina managed to rack up over the one month period, although it has been confirmed by US network AT+T that this total also includes inbound text messages. American users pay to receive texts, as well as sending them.
However, it is yet more proof that the modern mobile phone user is increasingly relying on text messages to communicate, according to a 2008 Nielsen study which reports that teenagers aged 13-17 use 1,742 text per month, on average.
With texting becoming so commonplace, many networks are taking advantage of this, and offering incentives to use SMS. For example, Virgin Mobile offer incentives such as free texts to other Virgin users. Networks such as Orange also offer the option of unlimited texts.
With the various promotions run by Virgin Mobile and others, texting is rapidly becoming as economical a way to communicate as it is popular, and that trend looks set to continue for a long time to come.