Over the holiday we learned that our much-younger-second-cousin (she's 14) has a bit of a texting problem. Her mother told us (over a plate of assorted homemade food-stuffs) that the lass had reached an astounding 28,000 texts per month (thousand, not hundred) at one point this summer. Let's break that down.

Thirty days in a month, right? So that's about a thousand text messages (sent and received, mind you — not that it makes it any less amazing) per day. Divide, carry the two et cetera, and it's about 933 "txts" every 24 hours, or about 39 messages an hour. Luckily, said relative is enrolled in an unlimited texting plan.

Another interesting point to note: the responsible tween rarely uses the phone for calling purposes. When her phone was taken away for as punishment for something (not the 28,000 texts — is over-communicating a crime?), she became indignant over having to make phone calls via land line.

What's the point of this anecdote? The astronomically high volume of text messages flitting between today's youth cannot be ignored. Our cousin can't be the only one using her phone so much, so go find a way to get ads in there. That one's one the house.

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