A recent study, which found texting amongst teens has risen 600% in three years to an average of 3000 texts a month for the typical teen, also found that as far as your brain is concerned, texting is as gratifying as using heroin:
Neuroimaging studies show the same brain areas are stimulated with both texting and using heroin. "In a very primitive part of the brain, the dopamine system gets triggered. That's the general reward system in our brain," said Dr. Small. Some texting addiction warning signs include losing track of time because of excessive texting, neglecting eating and sleeping, having a constant need for more, and suffering negative repercussions, like ignoring others or lying because of texting. Chronic texters actually say they feel bad when they don't get a text. All the more reason to text even more people.
A separate study found that, among teens, 10% felt it was acceptable to text during sex. Man, when I was a teen, sex didn't last nearly long enough to have time to text anybody. Of course, this is just the new generation of the age old "__________ (new invention) is going to ruin our kids' brains!" argument. When I was a kid it was TV. Anytime anything bad happened to someone young, it was because of TV. Now, parents only wish their kids would watch some TV and quit sending n00ds to online predators on Facebook or texting their friends all damn day. The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes, man.
