Confessions Of An Extreme Teen Texter

(CBS)  American teens love to text. A recent study found that on average, teens send and receive more than 1,700 messages every month.

Rachel Schwartzbard, 15, from Edison, N.J. was recently recognized by the NY Post for her excessive texting - 32,063 texts per-month.

"My highest month was 38,000," Schwartzbard admitted to Early Show co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez.

"Why do you next so much?" Rodriguez asked.

"It's just the way I have communication with everyone and to stay connected to your friends," Schwartzbard said.

"Does it take over your life?" Rodiguez added.

"I'm on 16 extracurricular activities at school. I don't think so. I kind of incorporated it into my day," Schwartzbard said.

"We're raising a generation of digital natives," said parenting expert Stacy Debroff. "And they are plugged in and texting is here to stay. It's an integral part of how they socialize. The thing is that as parents, we have to see it as just another way that they're plugged in. And we've got to think about, just like we turn off the TV, 'how do we approach them in terms of their texting?'"

"Do your parents put any limits on how and when you can text?" Rodriguez asked.

"I think they would if it affected my grades or class work or anything. But I manage to keep my priorities straight, so they don't put limits on me," "Schwartzbard said.

Parents may wonder if this just how kids are today and if so, can every child juggle it all?

"We look at Rachel. Most kids can't balance as much as what Rachel's doing," Debroff said. "She must be sending a text a minute. And I think that when it starts interfering with homework and with their sleep and suddenly they aren't able to concentrate and they're using it as passing notes, we just have to think about how we approach it."

After parents accept that it's a digital age, then they have to set limits if texting becomes a problem.

"It is not a constitutional right," Debroff said. "We have to lay down some texting rules like 'no texting in the classroom.' It's a real issue. They're using it as note passing. 'No texting in the middle of the night.' And we're going to check your phone bills to make sure. 'No texting at the dinner table.' Remember the 'no talking to each other' and 'no texting when I say, "no texting!'"

Parents must walk the walk and be a role model, Debroff reiterated.

"It is true," she said. "Many times we're saying to our kids, 'I think you're texting too much.' And at the same time, we're rapidly -- our attention is totally glued to our computers. We're on our iPhones, our BlackBerrys. So we have to realize that we have to set limits on ourselves."

[barbaram99]

I miss the day when we greeted each other . I like my computer but but I talk to my friend. We have our computers. We will e-mail back and forth, Just to tonch base. Nope I rearly take my notebook out, If I do its to write a letter or whatever, Texting can''t see to do that.

[abeyankee]

Rachel''s text number on her verizon bill is total text messages which means both in and out so while she has around 20k per month in most months she did have a high month of 38k messages and this was verified on her Verizon bill. and yes rachel is a good student and is very active on a lot of activities in school...many text messages are one worders...while it''s is hard to believe, it is true unless you think Verizon''s count is wrong....by the way, if you look around the corporate world and see the emailing and blackberry activity going on it''s not much different.

[rational_1]

In a few months we should be reading an article on how Rachel Schwartzbard has somehow forgotten how to speak the English language. Mouths are for eating, fingers are for ''talking''.

[jayteefive]

I have seen some kids who could come close to this. I''m not sure if they could sustain that rate all day long, but a text a minute isn''t atypical. Remember, half the time the text is just ''rotfl'' or something equally wordy.

[willcad]

38,000 texts in one month.

Assuming a 31-day month, that''s 1225 per day.

Assuming this kid sleeps 6 hours per night, that leaves 18 hours in which to text, or 68 texts per hour, all day, every day.

In other words, to acheive 38,000 texts in a month, this kid had to send a text every 52 seconds, every waking moment of every day - including bathroom, meal, class, practice, and shower times - for a month.

How is that not affecting her classwork? How is that not affecting her extra-curricular activities? I think Rachel is fibbing a little; if she''s spending that much time texting, it''s simply not possible for her to be doing much of anything else.

Any activity that takes up that much time in any person''s life is an unhealthy obsession.