Texting is fine, until it goes too far

CHICOPEE, Mass. (WWLP) - Chicopee High School senior Michelle Amo sends about two hundred text message from her cell phone every day.

According to Peter Vangsness of the Center for Human Development in Springfield, there's nothing wrong with staying in touch through texting. “You and I grew up in a different era when we communicated differently. We did more writing, we did more personal contact, within our families, in our social settings, a lot of things that don't exist today,” he said,

Besides, Vangsness says, when a young person receives a text message, it brings them instant gratification that heightens their sense of worth. “When you get a text from someone you haven't seen in a while, it's like ‘oh, they're actually thinking of me,’ but it's different when you try talking with your grandparents you haven't seen in a while. You can't text them because most grandparents don't know how to text,” Amo said.

Amo admits, however, that texting can be too much of a good thing. She draws the line at what she calls annoying texting; texting in class, at the movies, people who text 24/7. As she put it: chronic texters who just can't talk to someone face to face.