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SMS Text Messaging & Youth Debt One
securitas writes "The New York Times' Lisa W. Foderaro reports on the impact of SMS text messaging and resulting debt on America's youth. The predictable but seldom-considered effect of the recently available technology combined with the social role instant messaging and SMS play are leading to bills that youth and parents alike can't afford. 'Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging's pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills' ranging from $300 to $800 per month. One school principal says that 'many students were blindsided by costs associated with text-messaging and other features, like customized ring tones"
"I was shocked, but I couldn't do anything about it," he said. "I didn't realize that I got charged for reading text messages. My dad was just like: 'Hey, it's your problem. Pay it.' "
Is there any other place in the world besides North America where people have to pay to RECEIVE calls and texts???
How do they manage to get away with that?
In Europe, an SMS costs approximately 10 cts. Kids send about 10-15 messages a day. And love downloading crappy 3 ringtones. A real song costs 1. You don't need to be Einstein to realise how expensive it gets. Where's the problem?! The cost of these thingies. It has a minimal(non-existant?) cost for the operator, but they make you pay a fortune for 'em. Many associations pointed this out, but hey, it's easy money. Kids aren't to blame.
Welcome to 2001... the rest of the developed world has been noticing this for several years now...
I dream to see an advert like this:
"Hello, im John Smith head of the ACME network. Do you know how much we in the mobile phone industry like to rip you off? our profit margins go as high as %100,000 and we all work together to keep it that way. But at ACME we've decided to rebel, starting today we're embarking on a vicious price war with our competitors, we'll give you a no-contract pay-as-you-go network with absolutely free SMS messages any time and any place, no matter where you go in the world they'll still be free and unlimited and right now our competitors are all having heart attacks. How do we do this and still charge your calls at reasonable prices? simple, it costs us almost nothing to route your messages and we figured we would steal 95% of our competitors customers in just one week. So fuck you Orange, T-Mobile, O2, Vodaphone, Virgin, 3, and all the others, we're just about to screw your cash cow in the arse" (does hand gesture) "SUCK IT"
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Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
If you're in highschool or college and you can't figure out that the service you signed up for that carries a per-use fee is going to cost more when you use it more, then the idea of being responsible is lost on you. This isn't even something that parents need to instill in their children. It's just common fucking sense. I mean, how the fuck do you get accepted into a college if you can't even understand something as simple as "My phone company charges 10 cents per text message and if I send 8,000 text messages in a month, I'm going to owe $800".
Also, when would sending a text message on a portable device that is itself a phone *EVER* be more convenient than just hitting the autodial button and fucking TELLING them something? And 8,000 messages?! That's 267 per day, 17 per waking hour - or one message every 3.5 minutes.
If you're wasting that much time chit-catting on your cell phone - text or not - you're probably also failing college, failing highschool, or edging toward a firing at work.