Today's WTF Moment: The Average Teen Texts 3700 Times a Month

Female Teen TextingI am a social media person.  I write articles for a living and am constantly scouring the web for new stories, articles and what’s happening on the web.  I use my phone and yes, I check texts.

With that being said I was amazed this week when I saw a Newsweek story in the Daily Beast that said that the average teen texts 3700 times a month. 

WTF?!?

3700 texts a month equals over 120 texts per day!  If you’re awake for 16 hours this equals almost 10 texts every waking hour.  If you take away the 6 hours a day in a classroom the number doubles to close to 20 texts per hour.

Teens Texting Collage

With all this texting going on when do teens study? Play sports?  Exercise?  Cook? Learn a skill?  Read a book?  When do teens actually TALK to each other or just sit and think?

I, like many people have major concerns about overload on digital technology and the lack of basic human interaction.  As the Daily Beast states in their article, "The computer is like electronic cocaine".  Clearly our young people are becoming junkies.  The average teen spends 7 hours per day of screen time on electronic devices.  When you factor in multitasking on several devices you get to a whopping 11 hours per day.

I’m not an old man, but I’m definitely not a teen so somebody needs to explain this to me. Without an answer I will refrain from any negative commentary so for right now all I can say is WTF!

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