Digital text madness

The following is a bit from englishchosun.com, the English version of the Korean newspaper the Chosun Ilbo. It made me pause trying to work out the sheer logistics of these numbers.

“According to figures released by the National Statistical Office on Wednesday, teenagers between 15 and 19 on average sent a whopping 60.1 text messages per day, a slight increase from 59.5 in 2005. “Our children are seriously addicted to cell phones,” an official with the civic group Parent’s Union on Net said. Some 46 percent of middle and high school students send text messages even in class, according to research by the Korea Agency for Digital Opportunity & Promotion. “

You can link to the full article here
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200705/200705030011.html

60.1 text messages a day! That is approximately 59 more text messages than people I have contact with over the phone. This is related to another personal statistic. 99.1 % of all text messages that a certain Michael Gallagher of Princeton, New Jersey, sends originate from the bathroom. Texting is the modern version of a newspaper in that regard. That statistic should ensure that I never receive any responses to any text messages ever again.

P.S. I dare anyone to guess that subway station (which leaves this competition entirely up to the 2 Jens in my life.) I will give you a hint. It originally had a huge poster for Star Wars Phantom Menace with Ewan MacGregor and the caption “Are you ready?”

Second hint. I worked not far from this station.