According to the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association Canadians send 227 million text messages per day.  That’s 82,855,000,000/year. 

Wow. 

That is a whole lot of texting power that we mental health professionals might be able to tap into [no pun intended].

As you might expect the vast majority of these text messages are being sent by teens and young adults. The frequency of text messaging has increased year over year. In 2010 the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project reported that, amongst teens, the frequency of use of texting had overtaken the frequency of every other common form of interaction with their friends, including face-to-face interactions. [1]

And the ways in which texting is used have evolved as well.   As a literature review of teenagers and texting points out, “multiple studies in various countries have been conducted on the content of young adults’ text messages, with similar results across studies. Many text messages have to do with coordination of events and maintaining relationships”.  This is an area where texting might be useful for mental health initiatives.
Continue reading →