You always knew there was a reason why you left your cell phone on in class. Not just to showoff your latest Justin Timberlake ring tone, but to report on emergencies such as this one – and this one can’t wait.
Professor Blowhard is sporting pit stains that are almost unbearable not to laugh at. You snicker instead and then perform another seemingly involuntary function – you send a text message to every person you know.
Texting is fast, instant and straight to the point. But is this method of technology possibly hazardous to one’s grade point average, bank account and even finger joints? Yes, but the cuteness factor tips the scale for freshman science and technology major, Betsy Kemp.
“I love getting cute texts that just make you smile either in a boring class or during the day when you’re down and busy, then all of a sudden you get a text message from a friend with something random that cheers you up,” Kemp said.
For some, the sight of “1 new message” leaves one giddy enough to bolt out the door of a boring class. Criminal justice professor Amanda Dunn wouldn’t have it any other way.
The syllabus in her “nature of crime” course states, “‘If anyone is caught text messaging on their cell phone while in class, the phone is mine until the end of class that evening.'”
In regard to her policy Dunn said, “Cell phones have to be on silent and I do not allow people to text message while they are in my class. I do think it is a major distraction. I think it is very rude behavior and completely unacceptable throughout most of the work force.”
And at the rate that phone companies charge and subscribers text message, working is probably not an option. When working at the Mobile Communications at Franklin Mills Mall, Chandreyi Das said a couple’s finger-flailing teenage daughter had earned “the highest bill I ever saw.”
“It came to $430,” the junior international business administration major said. “I highly recommended a texting plan after that.”
The possibility of receiving an outrageous phone bill due to texting is more likely than one may think.
“I originally had a 1,000-free-text-messages-a-month plan, and I went over by 1500. My bill was $150 more that month,” said freshman nursing major Three Nunez, who attributes the costs to communicating in cacophonic areas, such as parties, bars and clubs. ”
It’s a convenience, since there’s loud music in the background and people talking.”
The costs of text messaging don’t always end in numbers, said Dr. Jonathan Rosenfeld, an orthopedic hand surgeon at the Pennsylvania Hand Center.
He said a form of tendonitis, known as “trigger finger,” could result from “overuse of the digits.”
“This is due to the swelling of the tendon
in its sheath,” Rosenfeld said. “It then can rub on the sheath or on a pulley, causing pain and a locking or clicking sensation.”
Besides weaning oneself from the keypad,
one can prevent such future inflammation
with “exercises of the tendons.”
Like drunken dialing, the remembrance of drunken text messaging may offer some comic relief in the midst of a nasty hangover the next morning. However, the recollection of a misfired drunken text, can be sobering.
“I once texted my mom to come to a party by mistake,” said Kayla Lesisko, a sophomore psychology major who estimates she sends out about 20 texts every weekday and even more during the weekend.
“She thought it was funny and she replied asking if she was still invited to the party.”
Jessica Marcial can be reached at jmarcial@temple.edu.
After stumbling across this article after submitting to doing an interview for a desperate friend of a friend on AIM I’m disgusted to find that I’m portrayed as a drunk sending text messages by mistake to her mother. The actual scenario was that it happened well before a friend’s birthday party.
Thanks Temple News.