In line with the last post on Twitter, Facebook, and the demise of the web, the New York Times has an article on the health effects of constant texting.  Not only is excessive texting bad for your thumbs, but it’s also likely to be bad for your mental health!

So what do texting, Twitter, and other social networking sites have in common?  They all encourage a high frequency of short and relatively meaningless “communication”…further dumbing down society.  With constant low grade interruptions it’s no wonder so many people are diagnosed with ADD these days.  According to the NYTimes article, the average teenager gets/sends 75 text messages a day!  As a “punishment”, Reina was limited to 166 messages per day.  Imagine that.

This obsessive, constant texting is not only bad for mental health and development, but it’s also incredibly rude.  How many of you have been in the middle of a conversation with a real human being when they started texting…or for that matter, answering their ringing cell phone over and over again?  I’m going to start a new rule: I won’t talk to anyone who answers cell phone calls or text messages in the middle of a conversation. Interactions with real people should take precedence over virtual communication.

Two years ago I gave up my cell phone.  It was one of the best decisions I’ve made.

I work on the web for a living, and am not the first to notice a sad trend.  Less people are developing their own websites or writing on their own blogs.  They’re using social networking sites like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter.  You might not lose any sleep over that bitchy chick hanging out on Facebook and Twitter at the expense of her blog, but it makes me sad. It also makes Jonathan Zittrain sad, as he explains in convincingly great detail in The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It.  These social networking sites are not only helping people trim their attention spans down to the level of a 2 year old, but they’re also killing creativity on the web.  So to do my part, I’m starting ReadingOnTheToilet.com.

Because I make a living on the internet, some of these posts will be about the internet in general, creating websites, and making money on the web.  Others will include interesting news stories and websites I come across…but all in easily digestible chunks you could read on the toilet…if you don’t mind your legs falling asleep.  If you’ve got anything of interest you’d like to share, please leave a comment or send me an email.