Sore Thumbs and Texting 170
Ant writes "ABC News reports that text messaging, once seen as a way to send a short message without running up the expense of a cellular telephone/cell phone call, has become so popular that it poses its own public health problem: sore thumbs.
This comes from a survey and warning put out by Virgin Mobile, one of the largest cellular service providers in Great Britain. Virgin reports that 93 million text messages are sent every day in the United Kingdom (U.K.). One estimate for the United States (U.S.), whose population is five times as large, is 700 million text messages a year.
"
Nintendo thumb (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Nintendo thumb (Score:2)
Why I had to walk two miles, barefoot, through the snow to get to my controller, and it was uphill, both ways...
Oh come on now. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh come on now. (Score:1)
Re:Oh come on now. (Score:2)
Re:Oh come on now. (Score:1)
First litigation? Someone else to blame? (Score:3, Informative)
It's just a poll, actually. So they have sore thumbs...big deal.
Re:First litigation? Someone else to blame? (Score:2)
If people could sue for sore thumbs, Nintendo would have gone out of business years ago.
Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:1)
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:1)
karem
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:3, Informative)
texting (sending an sms message) is much more popular in the UK and europe in general than it is in the states, mainly because initially the infrastructure was terrible, a very large proportion of messages were lost when sending abroad or to other networks, this has been resolved but people in general do not have the same sense of trust in the technology as they do in other countries.
imagine that in your first year of emailing more than half of your em
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Who's mind thinks that? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Who's mind thinks that? (Score:3, Informative)
For more ways of bending the truth, check out Darrell Huff's How to Lie With Statistics [amazon.com].
Re:Who's mind thinks that? (Score:2)
Whilst the summary is factually correct, it is written in a misleading way.
Only because you're reading too fast and not paying enough attention. Stop skimming and start reading.
Re:Who's mind thinks that? (Score:2)
I don't refuse to not disbelieve that the article wasn't factually inaccurate, nor do I fail to forget that logical precision without a lack of disorientation may not rarely be misleading.
When presenting data, it's not only curteous but absolutely critical to present it in a way that's easily understandable. In some cases, such as the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster [edwardtufte.com], lives may be at stake. (quick summary: Boeing had no data on t
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Firstly, let's convert the US figure to 'per day':
700 million / 365 = ~2million sent per day in the US.
If you then factor in the population difference:
2 million / 5 = ~0.4million per day for a comparable population size.
Work out the ratio:
93million / 0.4million = ~230
Hence, based on those estimated figures, texting in the UK is approximately 230 times as popular as in the US.
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Cell Statistics for the USA [w2forum.com]
Roughly 50 messages per month on average which is a low number in my head.
Subscriber Stats [newsdial.com]
Roughly 120 million americans have phones. Sounds like that number has got to be way out of date. I know I personally send over 200 messages a month. Routinely 300 and I'm not considered a heavy texter. Think of all those blackberry users out there.
I could be way off and this week may
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Of course, certainly in the European Parliament, many people have two phones and artificially raise the No of texts sent by having to text themselves, so the right hand knows what the left hand is doing!
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:3, Informative)
4 billion text messages per month are sent in the US. This is according to the Mobile Messaging Alliance, a industry group of carriers. www.mma.com
Maybe they ment 700 Million per year for Virgin? Thats about right.
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
I personally avoid text messages because I get charged (US, Cingular) for every text message I send or receive. (Being a socio-phobic geek, not that I really have a g/f or a bunch of people I would want sending me inane messages...) I also get charged by the kilobyte for data, be that on the phone itself or (when it works) using the phone as a modem for my laptop. I paid for the 5MB data plan one month - a waste. A simple S
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Read forums, learn where not to get screwed by your cell provider.
ex:
I pay $10/mo for Power Vision with Sprint, I get unlimited high speed internet, and I can tether my laptop through the phone.
To listen to a providers shit about required this or required that is BS -- just talk to a sales rep, call customers service, and you'll eventually get what you want.
Finally, regarding your 411 Fees: 1-800-free-411
Re:Arghh bad use of statistics (Score:2)
Doctor, doctor (Score:1)
Re:Doctor, doctor -- how to avoid painful texting (Score:2)
No kidding. Instead of doing all the texting from your phone, use your computer when you can. Many mobile phone providers have a web page from which you can send your message. Otherwise, try one of these services:
Google SMS [google.com], send to phone extension [google.com] - send web page text to your phone
TXT2 [txt2day.com]
What? (Score:5, Informative)
My text messages cost 10 cents per message. I'd have to talk for over 2 minutes to cost more than a text message and I can sure relay more information in that two minutes than most can in a text message and even get feedback during that time. Text messages have their uses but being cheaper isn't one of them. Besides, I thought the point of text messages was to annoy others trying to watch a movie in a movie theater.
Re:What? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What? (Score:1)
Re:What? (Score:1)
True that.
But with a generation growing up with quick, instant messages and text messaging is an extension of that. Sure it may be quicker to just call somone, but new habits are hard to break. Text messaging is the mobile instant messenger.
Double true that. (Heck, I made a business out of text messaging.)
Re:What? (Score:3, Interesting)
That's you. T-mobile's Sidekick data plan includes unlimited SMS. Because I use SMS so freq
Public (Score:2)
Personally, I don't think it's the cell phones that are the problem. I think people being rude is the problem. I don't see anything wrong with considerate use of a cellphone in public spaces. My cell phone is my only phone. I have it with me pretty much wherever I go, but I'm polite about its use. I don't
Re:What? (Score:2)
As I understand it, SMS's (AKA "text" messages) are actually free to send as far as the Telco's are concerned. They use spare bandwidth on the network, and whilst it must have cost "something" to setup the capability to utilise this spare bandwidth, now it is all setup, it's a cash-cow for the Telco's.
Also, because it only uses "spare" bandwidth, delivery within any specific timeframe is not guarenteed.
You're getting screwed (Score:2)
Re:You're getting screwed (Score:1)
It's about 10 pence (£0.10) a message here if you're not on some kind of plan, that's 17 cents according to Google.
As for calls, I never make them because a 2 minute call is going to cost me much more than the price of a message. I guess that's why texting is much more popular here since it works out cheaper.
Re:You're getting screwed (Score:2)
Re:GSM and the USA (Score:2)
Re:GSM and the USA (Score:2)
No, they don't. The European mobile phone frequencies are used for other things here - for example, 900 MHz is an unlicensed band used for cordless phones, baby monitors, walkie talkies, etc.
However, you can get quad-band GSM phones that work on the American frequencies *and* the European ones. I'm sure T-Mobile sells those, but remember, they're still working on the American freq
Re:You're getting screwed (Score:2)
b) the US is is still the country with the worst GSM coverage I've encountered. For example, India and South Africa have far better coverage, so the old population density argument won't wash. As a tourist, I want my mobile to work, particulatly when I'm between major cities where there aren't any public phones.
When in Rome... (Score:2)
Griping that we have poor GSM coverage is like griping that Europe has poor CDMA coverage - worse, actually, because at least we have some GSM coverage, such as it is.
If we Americans want to go overseas, we have to rent or buy a phone at our destinations (except for the relatively few customers who already have a quad-band phone from a GSM provider). You can do the same when you come here, and then you can laugh at our ugly phones
Re:You're getting screwed (Score:2)
Re:What? (Score:2)
For example, on a 'Pay As You Go' UK phone, it might cost around 10p for a text message, and 40p per minute or more for a cross-network call. It's possible to certainly phone up and speak your message for the same price, but when you factor in added time for general greetings, phone calls can easily end up a lot longer and a lot more expensive than a SMS would have been.
Re:What? (Score:2)
Re:What? (Score:2)
2) I'd rather not get feedback on things I text... it's just like an e-mail, send complete thoughts and once you're done "talking", you get a complete response
3) Multitasking is much easier when text messaging than it is when talking on the phone (for the reason of #2, you don't have to be prepared to respond to feedback immediately)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:once seen (Score:2)
but seriously... (Score:1)
Shall I look out for (Score:1)
This just in... (Score:2, Informative)
seriously. That's like complaining about your legs hurting after walking 200ft, because you usually just do laps from the fridge to the couch. You can avoid soreness in your thumbs the same way you avoid soreness everywhere else: stretch your muscles (try shadow thumb wrestling), repetition, and don't go till it hurts. You know when you're getting near that point, just stop there.
IANAPFE (I am not a physical fitness expert), but I do play a lot of video games, A LOT of video games, and
Mod parent -1, uninformative! (Score:2)
You obviously don't know what "repetitive strain injury" is, right?
One thing is muscle fatigue due to exercise, a VERY DIFFERENT THING is when your joints are about to implode* because you've DAMAGED them.
* - In a metaphorical sense
The point with SMS is that the phone buttons are designed NOT to be pressed easily (otherwise you might end up calling long dist
Umm, did someone forget about... (Score:2, Informative)
Other appendages? (Score:1)
As opposed to other bodily appendages that have also grown sore because of the Internet?
Wussies. (Score:1)
Maybe it's just me, but... (Score:2, Informative)
By my definition, a health problem is something that you need medication or a doctor's appointment for. If your thumbs hurt you, taking a break from texting is all you really need. An alternative would be to try holding the phone in your hand a different way- after all, a repetitive strain injury is a repetitive strain injury.
Re:Maybe it's just me, but... (Score:2)
I think the term is being used as "a health problem that affects the public", i.e. [public (health problem)] rather than [(public health) problem]. Just like the "public obesity problem" that plagues my fellow Americans - it's the problem that's public, not the fat.
Re:Maybe it's just me, but... (Score:2)
Minor difference, but I never got a callous from playing NES, SNES, Genesis or the like... and I only ever got sore thumb syndrome from playing wayyyy too many hours of SF2 and SF2:Turbo....
Poor Filipinos (Score:3, Interesting)
SOURCE [wikipedia.org]
I personally don't like texting (Score:3, Informative)
Pros for me:
-Have my computer send me alerts.
-Send a quick e-mail to someone from the road.
-Send a short message to someone discreetly in a location where talking on the phone would be rude/inappropriate.
-Get a message through to someone when the reception is there but not good enough to have a conversation.
Cons for me:
-Almost have driven off the road on various occasions while trying to punch in a message or read a message. Way more dangerous then just talking.
-Time consuming to communicate the simplist of concepts.
-Sore thumbs
-U.S. carrier pricing on text messages makes it not make much sense economically.
-Additional way of being in-personal in your communication with other human beings.
-Short messages can be easilly mis-interpreted. Have gotten several people mad at me for no reason just because they took a brief text message the wrong way.
Re:I personally don't like texting (Score:2)
You send text messages while driving? I wish Darwinism worked a bit more efficiently. Unfortunately, people like you don't just kill themselves, they kill other people too.
Reading messages while driving is bad enough. Didn't it occur to you to, like, pull over, or maybe get to the next traffic light? That's a major advantage of SMS vs phone calls -- it waits for you.
Re:I personally don't like texting (Score:2)
Yes, in a similar way, a con of lace up shoes is that I often fall off my bike while attempting to tie them and cycle.
Have you considered the possibility that you might be an idiot?
Re:I personally don't like texting (Score:2)
Sore thumbs from the spam... (Score:2)
cellphone dialpad as keyboard (Score:2)
Use Morse Code (Score:1)
Keep in mind that learning to send Morse code is far easier than learning to receive it since you can move at your own pace. In fact, when I took my amateur radio exam back in the distanct past when you wer
Re:Use Morse Code (Score:2)
iqu
Re:Use Morse Code (Score:2)
You must not have seen the Tonight Show episode that pitted two hams (using Morse code) against two people using SMS. Morse code was faster. [engadget.com]
I suspect that email through a Treo or a BlackBerry would be faster than either of them, due to the availability of a keyboard that makes punching in text much less tedious than on the average cellphone.
Nothing to worry about (Score:1)
Umm...I mean...because of moving the mouse so much. Yeah, that's it.
Don't believe those estimates... (Score:2)
That's odd... Texting has been practical in the UK much longer than in the US, where for the longest time it simply wasn't possible to send text between networks. There's so much more support for text in the UK and one sees so much more online evidence of a text 'culture' there that it seems unlik
Re:Don't believe those estimates... (Score:2)
Yeah, that's why the (albeit confusing) statistics show that US users send far fewer texts than UK users.
As for your comment about the lack of carrier interop
Re:Don't believe those estimates... (Score:2)
Hrm? Not the ones I quoted.
UK: 93 million
US: 700 million / 5 = 140 million, accounting for population.
The population figures wrong, or did the story misquote something?
Re:Don't believe those estimates... (Score:2)
Per day vs per year.
<emilylatella>nevermind</>
(goddamn
Re:Don't believe those estimates... (Score:2)
Or to normalise the two statistics to the same time base, UK texters send 34 billion texts per year, but US texters only send 0.7 billion per year despite the population being 5 times larger.
Virgin one of the largest...? (Score:2)
Erm, Virgin Mobile is probably one of the smallest networks. It's certainly not one of the largest, and it uses T-Mobile's transmitters rather than having its own.
iqu
Re:Virgin one of the largest...? (Score:2)
This is only true for the United Kingdom, where Virgin uses GSM.
In the United States, Virgin Mobile is CDMA. T-Mobile is GSM. They are incompatible technologies, and Virgin Mobile uses Sprint towers. In Canada they are also CDMA and use Bell towers. I'm not sure what they use in Australia.
They are also not a "network" per se, as they don
fuck this dumb quasi-news (Score:2)
Inexpensive? (Score:2)
I just don't get it.
Re:Inexpensive? (Score:2)
The other use of texting is sending messages to lots of people, for example, at the glider club
CmdrTaco's wrists are killing him... (Score:4, Funny)
get a phone that takes dictation... (Score:2)
my new samsung a900 has a really functional speech-to-text function for dictating text messages right into the phone.
not useful for a location where you have to be quiet (the library, etc.), but much easier any other time.
http://www.samsung.com/Products/MobilePhones/Spri
User Interface (Score:2)
Re:User Interface (Score:2)
This is why I always roll my eyes (Score:3, Informative)
Based on these statistics, people in the UK send roughly 50 times as many text messages each year as people in the US. Factoring in the relative population sizes, on average we send 250 times as many SMSs as you guys do.
You might not use those "useless features" on your phones, but we most certainly do. Entire message boards exist solely to compare the picture quality and associated features of the various camera phones, which is a serious deciding factor for some people when buying a new phone...
Perhaps it's only useless because of the cost. (Score:2)
If I wanted an "all I could eat" unlimited package, I'd have to add 10$ onto my bill -- the equivalent of sending roughly 2 messages per day on the old bill.
Given that the basic "no text, unlimited evenings/weekends" plan is 25$ + tax, why would I want to add over a third to my cost in order to allow myself to relay information I can easily now?
I bet providers in the UK charge a f
Re:This is why I always roll my eyes (Score:2)
Oh, really? You have message boards for cellular phones! Wow! It's not like HowardForums [howardforums.com] has 6.54 million posts or anything.
Also, the statistics are wrong. CITA claims that 7.3 billion messages were sent in the US in October 2005,
Something strange with the statistics (Score:2)
Oblig VG Cats (Score:2)
US vs Europe (Score:2, Informative)
As the statistics say (not very clearly), texting is far more popular in the UK (and I would assume Europe, too) than the US. Cue lots of americans saying it's expensive and crap and don't understand why it's so popular.
Reason is that texting is cheap and universal in Europe (inc. the UK) because of the GSM network prevalent there, plus all sorts of organisations jumping onto the texting bandwagon to encourage people to text more.
It's the wrists (Score:2)
OT: Giving people unlimited data but charging for text messages is asinine.
Wrong (Score:2)
http://files.ctia.org/pdf/Wireless_Quick_Facts_Oc
text messaging vs. email (Score:2)
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:1)
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:2)
In contrast, SMS is almost unheard of in Japan, where all telephones sold in the last few years have supported email.
Actually.... (Score:2)
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:2)
That's not twice as often. It's less than 1/100th as often.
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:1)
What, are they trying to say that Americans dont have the text messaging skills that they do??
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:2)
Re:Incorrect multiplication? (Score:1)
Re:Americans are wealthier (Score:2)
I pay $55 a month for my cell phone. I don't pay per minute (e.g. I can talk all day long, all month long) and I don't pay for long distance (I can talk to someone clear across the country all day long)
Texting would COST ME MORE MONEY. No thanks.