(CNN) -- A New York teenager with a 7,000-a-month texting habit now has a lot more to text about.
Brianna Hendrickson, 13, of Brooklyn won this year's LG U.S. National Texting Championship by accurately typing the phrase "Old McDonald had a farm, Ei, ei, oh! And on this farm he had a champ. W/a txtr here, and BFF there. Here a text, there a text, erywhere a text-text!" in 60 seconds.
Brianna took home $50,000 and will compete in the LG Text For Good Challenge, where she will have the chance to double her prize money and win an additional $50,000 for a charity of her choice, the technology company said.
"I was really nervous when I saw the final phrase and worried my fingers wouldn't be fast enough," Brianna said. "Hearing my name announced was amazing and shocking all at the same time."
The final showdown pitted Brianna against two other teenagers and 48 year-old Joanne Rach from Chicago, Illinois. Rach won LG's national texting competition for parents and caregivers.
Finalists who competed in New York City had already messaged their way through preliminary competition, such as on-site texting challenges at concerts, text alerts on TV shows or texting from online tournaments. They endured blindfolds, complex phrases and marathon texting during the competition this week.
About 500,000 texters participated in preliminary rounds of the competition this year, LG said.
Here is what I don't understand. Who has 7000 unique things to say via text each month? When texting that much, how does a person have time to do anything else? For example, school, sports, video games, interact with other people face to face?
Why are parents ok with this?
This kid doesn't need $50,000 in cash, she needs $50,000 in therapy.
Atma
Title: Dragoon
Joined: Apr 29 2010
Location: Cincinnati, OH
Posts: 2450
Posted:
Sep 23 2010 10:23 am
Thats a hell of a lot of texting. I didn't even know these things existed.
I can see a 13 year old being into this but whats up with 48 year-old Joanne Rach from Chicago, Illinois. Shouldn't she have a job or something more important to do with her life?
Pandajuice
Title: The Power of Grayskull
Joined: Oct 30 2008
Location: US and UK
Posts: 2649
Posted:
Sep 23 2010 11:20 am
Agreed GP. I've never understood the point of texting, and I definitely think it's atrocious parenting to allow a child to send 7,000 texts a month or to allow a 13 year old to even have a cell phone. Companies shouldn't be encouraging this behavior by holding contests.
Syd Lexia
Site Admin
Title: Pop Culture Junkie
Joined: Jul 30 2005
Location: Wakefield, MA
Posts: 24887
Posted:
Sep 23 2010 12:36 pm
A lot of those texts are probably just "lol" and either "k" or "Kk", if her provider doesn't allow single character texts.
When texting that much, how does a person have time to do anything else? .
She's just that fast.
Klimbatize
2010 NES Champ
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Joined: Mar 15 2010
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Posted:
Sep 23 2010 03:23 pm
Pandajuice wrote:
Agreed GP. I've never understood the point of texting, and I definitely think it's atrocious parenting to allow a child to send 7,000 texts a month or to allow a 13 year old to even have a cell phone. Companies shouldn't be encouraging this behavior by holding contests.
Please, it's capitalism. Hell yeah companies are going to encourage people of all ages to have cellphones and text all day.
Also, I don't text very often but I prefer it over voice mail. It's much faster if you want to just pass along something basic. You don't have to have a 3 minute conversation with greetings and farewells when you just want to say what time you want to meet up, or whatever. And it's faster than leaving a message on someone's voice mail.
I think that the service providers are all making out like bandits with the whole text culture that we've got now, considering what they charge for data plans/text packages vs. what it actually costs them to give them to people. That said, I text quite a bit, but only to my wife or our roommate because it's quicker than calling them, cheaper too, since I have a prepaid plan. I do agree that kids probably shouldn't have stuff like that, especially because they take them to school. What ever happened to just passing a note or talking to someone?
Who likes role-playing games? Me. Way too goddamn much.
sidewaydriver
2010 SLF Tag Champ
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Joined: May 11 2008
Posts: 6160
Posted:
Sep 23 2010 03:31 pm
I want to see them up the ante by having the contestants drive 60mph down the highway while texting.
Yea texting is great for getting out quick messages in class, etc. It's also great working in a kitchen, most of the time we are really busy and I don't have the time to take a call. I do have like a quick 10 seconds to shoot a message back though.
I used to hate texting, and still use my phone more, but texting definitely has it's place.
Also, Panda, 13 is not too young for a cell phone IMO, you are just starting to gear up for high school at that point and it's understandable. I have seen like 6 year olds with cellphones before. Now that is retarded.
. Also, Panda, 13 is not too young for a cell phone IMO, you are just starting to gear up for high school at that point and it's understandable. I have seen like 6 year olds with cellphones before. Now that is retarded.
My 9 year old cousin just got a phone for her birthday.
I think when a parent decides a child is mature enough to stay home alone, its ok to get them a phone. At that point the child will probably be involved in sleepovers and stuff like that, so you can always get a hold of them. If you don't trust your kid, you can get those phones where they can only dial the X amount of numbers you place into it, lock the camera out, and limit the text messages.
I think phone companies have been pretty good at providing hardware/software for phones that have parental control.
GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
Posted:
Sep 23 2010 05:03 pm
Over 200 text messages a day, even if they are all "k" is ridiculous.
Pandajuice
Title: The Power of Grayskull
Joined: Oct 30 2008
Location: US and UK
Posts: 2649
Posted:
Sep 24 2010 05:56 am
Andrew Man wrote:
Yea texting is great for getting out quick messages in class, etc. It's also great working in a kitchen, most of the time we are really busy and I don't have the time to take a call. I do have like a quick 10 seconds to shoot a message back though.
This is where you lose me though. What is so pressing and important in your life that you MUST get a message out while in class or at work or when driving to work. I worked in a kitchen too and we didn't communicate via text messages, so I know you're just texting to your buddies or whatever when you should be focusing on plating table 12's order.
That's the part I don't get. This sudden NEED for people to constantly be connectible at all times.
And 13 is too young for their own phone. They don't need one and are too immature for the responsibility that comes with it. Parental controls are great, but locking your teenager down that way is usually met with harsh resistance. It's just easier to set a certain age, say 16, when they can have one and stick to it.
I understand the temptation to give them one so the parents can always be in contact with them, but that's not why the kid wants it and not what they'll primarily use it for. And we as a society got along just fine as parents 15 years ago when cell phones weren't so ubiquitous. A 9 year old with a phone is appalling to me.
Alowishus
Joined: Aug 04 2009
Posts: 2515
Posted:
Sep 24 2010 08:34 am
I text more than i call only for the reason that it costs 10p a minute to call someone and that my texting is free.
GPFontaine
Joined: Dec 06 2007
Location: Connecticut
Posts: 11244
Posted:
Sep 24 2010 10:56 am
Alowishus wrote:
I text more than i call only for the reason that it costs 10p a minute to call someone and that my texting is free.
