Getting the message?

OMG! UR BF is PDA w/UR BFF. FWIW it's BFO
IDK! WE! G2G
Translation: Oh my gosh. Your boyfriend is having public displays of affection with your best friend forever. For what it's worth, it's a blinding flash of obviousness.
Your response: I don't know. Whatever. I’ve got to go.
It used to be that phones were used for calling people. Nowadays, conversations are being had through shorthand messages typed out and sent between cell phones called texts. Is nothing personal anymore?
Cell phones are all the rage for professionals, parents and children. In recent years, it stood to reason that a child would get their first cell phone when they got a car. It was to be used for emergencies like flat tire phone calls, breakdowns and the occasional "I'm running late" call. Now, children in second grade can be seen comparing phone features on the playground.
As part of the new cell phone epidemic, policies are being made to keep phones out of schools. According to the Orange County Schools' Student Code of Conduct, section four, letter D, "the use of any type of unauthorized electronic or mechanical device is prohibited during regular school hours unless approved by an administrator. This shall include, but not be limited to, pagers, cellular phones, portable music devices, laser pointers, cameras, etc., or look-alikes."
But, seriously, who has pagers anymore? There's no texting on a pager, and if it doesn't text, students don't want it.
While some students, like Locust Grove Middle School student Jennifer Shepard, say that they don't text a lot and actually prefer calling, others are described as texting queens.
Ann Mohrmann, an eighth grader at Prospect Heights Middle School, texts, a lot.
"I probably send about 100 text messages a day," she said. "It's pretty much friends and family."
According to Mohrmann, it is easier to text than to call.
"It's a lot easier because you can do things while you text like homework, be on the computer or you can be texting someone else at the same time," she said.
Mohrmann said that she received her phone last summer as a reward for getting good grades and that most of her friends have phones. Texting, which usually costs about 10 cents a message, can make a phone bill skyrocket if the user is not careful. However, the purchase of an unlimited texting plan, which runs about $19.99, will allow the user to send an unlimited amount of text messages per a month for the flat rate.
"I have an unlimited texting plan," Mohrmann said. "Most of my friends have unlimited texting as well."
Texting may seem harmless and innocent and in most cases it is. However, texting has been used in schools and in major universities as a way of cheating on exams and tests.
"Our students are not allowed to use their phones during school," Orange County High School Principal Gene Kotulka said. "They can have them before school, after school and during lunch."
According to Kotulka, cell phones and texting have not been a large problem. However, he said that he couldn't guarantee that students weren't using them for things like cheating.
"We probably have them used for a variety of reasons," he said. "We try to stay alert to watch them and keep it from happening. Teachers are active in classes during tests. Can I say it doesn't happen 100 percent, no, probably not."
Prospect Heights Middle School Principal Frank Leech said that his students are also not allowed to use their phones during school which includes calling or texting.
"A lot of kids bring them for after school," he said. "They have to be off in the building."
He said that while he didn't know of any instances where students had used the phones to cheat, he did say that those in violation of the cell phone policy have their phones taken away and given to their parents, which does happen occasionally.
When asked about using their phone at school, both Shepard and Mohrmann said that they don't take them out at school.
"I don't text at school," Mohrmann said. "Some people still text but I don't."
Elementary schools are not immune to the cell phone epidemic. According to Locust Grove Elementary School Principal Jesse Magruder, the school does have a policy on cell phones, but problems with them are minimal.
"I tell parents that if students have them, they have to keep them turned off and put away during school," he said. "I was concerned about them a few years before [when they first started becoming popular]. I was more afraid of them getting lost."
Cell phones are not cheap to replace. A phone can be anywhere from free with a two-year contract or cost upwards of $400 each.
The texting craze doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. According to the CTIA, the International Association for Wireless Telecommunications, which conducts a semi-annual industry survey to determine growth and popularity within the industry, texting is on the rise. According to the survey, more than one trillion text messages were carried on carriers' networks in 2008, breaking down to more than 3.5 billion messages per day. In 2007, only 363 billion text messages were transmitted.
During a time where most industries are seeing a slump due to the flailing economy, wireless revenues are continuing to grow, from $23.2 billion in 2007 to $32 billion in 2008. And that's nothing to LOL about.