Think you can text with the best? Not unless you send 14,000 texts per month, like this year’s champion of the LG U.S. National Texting Championship, 15-year-old Kate Moore. The Iowa teen beat out 20 other finalists in challenges such as texting while blindfolded, all for a grand prize of $50,000. Moore reportedly sent more than 400 texts a day to hone her speed and accuracy.
That number that makes us wonder whether she was sacrificing human contact and, possibly, communication skills, all for the sake of her glowing cell phone screen. Still, she says she sometimes puts her phone away in favor of actual face time with friends and family, according to Yahoo News:
The teen dismisses the idea that she focuses too much on virtual communications, saying that while she has sometimes had her phone taken away from her in school, she keeps good grades, performs in school plays and socializes with friends — in person — on the weekends…. Among her uses of the text messages? Studying for exams with friends, which she says is better done by text because she can look back at the messages to review.
There’s another reason she should take breaks from texting: To prevent so-called “Texting Thumb,” which is characterized by pain, immobility and stiffness in finger and neck joints.
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Image: flickr / uberculture
