Are Teens Texting SMS Too Much?

A new report finds that the average teen sends and receives an eye-popping 80 text messages a day, with some kids losing sleep and pushing their aching thumbs to the limit just to keep up with the endless SMS threads. Are we talking a harmless distraction here, or a worrisome health threat?

The New York Times cites a Nielsen study that found that the average U.S. teenager sent and received more than 2,200 SMS messages a month in the last quarter of 2008—or as the Times notes, about 80 messages a day, double last year's tally.

The Times story goes on to quote a series of physicians and psychologists, who tick off a list of possible physical and mental health effects from the constant flow of text messages—for example, sleep deprivation as teens fire off SMS replies late at night, "terrific anxiety" over the fear of "being out the loop," and even repetitive-stress injuries as thumbs fly across the keypads.

And teens aren't just texting with each other—they're also peppering their moms and dads (and vice versa) with messages, leading one psychologist in the Times piece to wonder whether texting isn't keeping teens from one of the most important goals of adolescence: "breaking free" from the influence of their parents.

Now, most of the concerns listed in the Times story are anecdotal; there aren't any clinical studies (not yet, anyway) that show a definite link between heavy texting and mental and/or physical harm in teens.

Still, as someone who taps out a grand total of, oh, about five to ten text messages a week (mostly of the "hey, meet me at the corner" or "I'm running late" variety), I'm astounded by the statistic that teens—or anyone, really—is exchange upwards of 80 messages a day, and I'm sure that number stretches well into triple digits for the chattiest of kids.