Switched-On Magazine

Every day, more than 5 billion text messages get sent. The number increases almost every day, with 2010 on pace to shatter the record of 1.5 trillion text messages sent in 2009. What started 18 years ago, as a computer engineer's message to a friend saying Merry Christmas, has blown up into a form of communication that has seeped into every area of everyday life. You can flirt, discuss, buy, vote, and cheat on tests. (Don't do the last one, though.) The phenomenon is a regression of sorts; a devolution from speech into a rich-man's telegraph. Texting, though, offers privacy, secrecy, and immediacy that speaking doesn't. 

So - all good, right? Well, not quite. Multitasking - an attractive, seemingly efficient practice - is actually pretty dangerous when texting. Yeah, it sucks to walk into a pole when you're telling a friend to meet you somewhere. But much more serious, and much more dangerous, is texting while driving. But this problem is misperceived among many youth.

According to a 2008 study, teens view texting while driving as safer than inexperience or drinking, and witness it far more often than either of them. However, according to a Car and Driver study, texting can be more dangerous than being drunk at the wheel. The study's participant ended up inadvertently braking much slower when texting than when impaired by alcohol or reading an email. Meanwhile, CBS reports that texting distracts drivers, on average, for 4.6 seconds at a time. In a highway situation, where cars are going above 60 MPH, this can mean going for over 400 feet without looking at the road. Because of these dangers, 18 states have made it against the law for any drivers to text while on the road, and 9 more have deemed that novice drivers may can't text.
   
There's another danger to texting, one less dangerous, but more scandalous. Sexting (sex + texting) has been the subject of much recent debate. Basically, since a lot of sexters are underage, if they send pictures of themselves, that technically counts as distribution of child pornography. Obviously, child pornography laws weren't created to stop explicit messages between mutually underage partners, so the use of these laws to prosecute minors is under scrutiny. Time will tell whether sexting becomes acceptable or not.
   
No matter what you use texting for, the Emily Post Institute (an etiquette think-tank) has some advice. Keep it brief, keep it properly capitalized (THIS LOOKS LIKE YELLING) and keep it informal. Texting seems like it's here to stay, so establishing good text habits is a good idea.