Canadians' Love Of Texting Bigger Than Ever

Summary of Article:

Canada may be the birthplace of the BlackBerry and mobile e-mail, and we're among the world's most obsessed users of Facebook, but it hasn't stopped us from engaging in relatively old-school form of electronic messaging: texting.  In fact, texting on cellphones, a feature first offered in Canada in 2002, is bigger than ever.  According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, 56.4 billion texts were sent in Canada in 2010, up 60% from the 35.3 billion sent the previous year.  Canadians have more and more digital messaging options nowadays including: e-mail, social networks, and chat programs, but there's something about texting that's stuck with consumers, said association spokesman Marc Choma.  "I think text messaging has a certain appeal just because it is so instant and so quick and all you have to know is a person's phone number," Choma said.  An anonymous person also said, "If I want to able to get a hold of my kids there seems to be something innate in young people that they feel compelled to respond to a text message  almost instantly.  I can try to call, or leave a voice message, or e-mail, but for some reason a text seems to get a much more imediate response.  The number of texts sent in 2009 was up 70% over the previous year, and in 2008 there was an annual increase of 105%.

My Opinion of Article:

I am surprised by this article, and not surprised at the same time. I wasn't aware that the percent of texts sent had gone up the past two years but am not surprised at the fact that people are more likely to respond to texts instead of other communicational devices.  It makes more sense that people are more likely to respond to texts, because as stated in the article, it is much quicker and easier to respond to a text.  There is an almost guaranteed chance that your message will get sent if you have signal, and you can say what you want.  You can also choose to reply to it or reply, whereas if you used a phone, it wouldn't be realistic to hang up on someone.  This article and these studies have also shown how dependant our world is on technology.  Instead of going to face to face with someone and talking to them, we send a message from across schools, etc.  It is a good device to communicate, but from the rates it is going at, the whole world will eventually text, and be taken over by technology.