{"id":5545,"date":"2017-05-06T13:14:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-06T13:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/05\/06\/texting-their-lives-away\/"},"modified":"2017-05-06T13:14:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-06T13:14:13","slug":"texting-their-lives-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2017\/05\/06\/texting-their-lives-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Texting Their Lives Away?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am currently reading, among other things, Kevin Mitnick, The Art of Invisibility<\/em>, Little, Brown & Co., 2017. A treatise on cyber-security, it strikes me as slightly alarmist, but Steve Wozniak recommends it.  I don't have to tell you who he is. The following, however, caught my eye and pricked my philosopher's skepticism:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A recent study found that 87 percent of teenagers text daily, compared to the 61 percent who say they use Facebook, the next most popular choice. Girls send, on average, about 3,952 text messages per month, and boys send closer to 2,815 text messages per month, according to the study. (pp. 72-73)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Could this be right? If you divide 31 into 3,952 you get 127.48.  So is the average girl sending that many text messages per day?  I don't believe it.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Mitnick in a foonote sends us to this Pew Research page<\/a> where we read something rather more plausible:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The number of text messages sent or received by cell phone owning teens ages 13 to 17 (directly through phone or on apps on the phone) on a typical day is 30.5<\/a><\/sup> The number of messages exchanged for girls is higher, typically sending and receiving 40 messages a day. And for the oldest girls (15 to 17), this rises to a median of 50 messages exchanged daily.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"Texting<\/a>And notice that the Pew figure is for messages sent and received, while Mitnick speaks only about messages sent.<\/span><\/p>\n

So how much credibility does Mitnick have? This little spot check of mine suggests that he slapped his book together rather quickly.  But there is plenty to be learned from it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all need to slow down, unplug, and look at things.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my aphorisms gives good advice:<\/span><\/p>\n

How to Look at Things<\/span><\/p>\n

Look at them as if for the first time — and the last.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am currently reading, among other things, Kevin Mitnick, The Art of Invisibility, Little, Brown & Co., 2017. A treatise on cyber-security, it strikes me as slightly alarmist, but Steve Wozniak recommends it.  I don't have to tell you who he is. The following, however, caught my eye and pricked my philosopher's skepticism: A recent … Continue reading “Texting Their Lives Away?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[180,376,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-decline-of-the-west","category-slow-down","category-web-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}