The Text Messaging Craze
Here is another topic I just don’t get. I personally would much rather talk to someone on the phone or in person than type them a message to send via cell phone. But apparently I am the odd person in today’s society. I recently had a teacher at a high school tell me that not only the students are texting but also the staff. He watched two staff members texting each other back and forth when they were sitting no more than ten feet from each other. He said he wanted to smack them and tell them to try communicating verbally.
I was against getting my fourteen year old daughter a cell phone until she was at least sixteen. My parents got her one for Christmas this year against my knowledge and I agreed to let her keep it if she was responsible in its use. I thought she was going to cry when I told her there was no way I was going to pay for text service. “But Dad, that is how everyone communicates now”, was her response. As if people don’t have enough of a problem with speaking in public and to others, now this!
Well, you know I love statistics so here we go. As of December 2006, 18.5 billion text messages are sent every month and that number has grown by 250% each year for the last two years. As of March 2007, 79% of the U.S. population owns a cellular phone. Experts are projecting text use to jump to 80 billion texts per month in 2008. The average age of a text user is surprisingly 38 years old. (Cell Signs, 2007) I expected a much younger group of people on this one.
Reference:
Cell Signs Inc. (2007), Text message statistics. Retrieved February 3, 2008 from the website http://www.cellsigns.com/industry.shtml.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Assignment 3-1
The Video Game Era
My youngest brother started collecting video games when he was in his early teens and has collected every system since the Atari 2600. He has collected several games for each system and has spent thousands of dollars to support his habit. I have often wondered what would make a person throw away money like that, especially when they didn’t have much to begin with. Each system he has collected with games and accessories costs hundreds of dollars at the time of purchase and as soon as the next generation of systems comes out, your hundreds of dollars invested just turned into fifty dollars if you are lucky. He is now married and having one heck of a time continuing his hobby when he is now spending her money too. Just like me, she doesn’t get it.
I decided a couple of years ago to try some of these new game systems to see what all of the fuss was about. My brother got me started playing Need for Speed Underground on Xbox. In about an hour or less I was hooked. All I wanted for my next birthday was an Xbox which my ever so perfect wife bought for me. Since then I have collected thirty two games and four wireless controllers. Since that time it has become increasingly more difficult to find accessories and games for that system and now they are all on the clearance shelves and nearly extinct. In less than two years my system that I still enjoy playing regularly has become obsolete. I am not ready to get rid of it and buy something else that now costs four to five hundred dollars. Some of the new games in series to the ones I currently have are only produced on the new consoles and that irritates me severely.
Here are some interesting statistics from the Entertainment Software Association in 2004; Seventy five percent of American heads of households played video games. Two hundred and forty eight million games were sold, almost two games for every household in America. The average video game player is thirty years old and has played for nine and a half years. Forty three percent of all game players are women. Women over eighteen represent a larger portion of the population playing video games than boys up to age seventeen, twenty eight percent verses twenty one. I am still refusing to buy a new system!
Reference:
Entertainment Software Association (2004), Retrieved February 3, 2008 from the website http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php.
My youngest brother started collecting video games when he was in his early teens and has collected every system since the Atari 2600. He has collected several games for each system and has spent thousands of dollars to support his habit. I have often wondered what would make a person throw away money like that, especially when they didn’t have much to begin with. Each system he has collected with games and accessories costs hundreds of dollars at the time of purchase and as soon as the next generation of systems comes out, your hundreds of dollars invested just turned into fifty dollars if you are lucky. He is now married and having one heck of a time continuing his hobby when he is now spending her money too. Just like me, she doesn’t get it.
I decided a couple of years ago to try some of these new game systems to see what all of the fuss was about. My brother got me started playing Need for Speed Underground on Xbox. In about an hour or less I was hooked. All I wanted for my next birthday was an Xbox which my ever so perfect wife bought for me. Since then I have collected thirty two games and four wireless controllers. Since that time it has become increasingly more difficult to find accessories and games for that system and now they are all on the clearance shelves and nearly extinct. In less than two years my system that I still enjoy playing regularly has become obsolete. I am not ready to get rid of it and buy something else that now costs four to five hundred dollars. Some of the new games in series to the ones I currently have are only produced on the new consoles and that irritates me severely.
Here are some interesting statistics from the Entertainment Software Association in 2004; Seventy five percent of American heads of households played video games. Two hundred and forty eight million games were sold, almost two games for every household in America. The average video game player is thirty years old and has played for nine and a half years. Forty three percent of all game players are women. Women over eighteen represent a larger portion of the population playing video games than boys up to age seventeen, twenty eight percent verses twenty one. I am still refusing to buy a new system!
Reference:
Entertainment Software Association (2004), Retrieved February 3, 2008 from the website http://www.theesa.com/facts/top_10_facts.php.
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