Okhla youth hooked to text messaging

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Okhla-based Adil Shadab Khan, 23, stays in touch with his friends and relatives through text messaging that is SMS. Khan claims to post some 150 text messages everyday. "I don't call my friends but I contact them through SMS. Above all I love doing it," he says. He spends around Rs 400 per month on text messaging. There are many youngsters like him in Okhla, Delhi and all over India, who have been addicted to text messaging. With the widespread use of mobile phones, text messaging has turned out to be the preferred mode of communication for youngsters.

Another resident Devendra Kumar also uses SMS to contact his friends on daily basis. Ammar Bin Nassar is an inveterate SMS user. He says he sends 100 SMS on daily basis to his friends all over India. With text message plans being offered by telecom companies at cheaper rates, it has become hugely popular among youngsters. Many use mobile to access social networking sites like Facebook. Text messaging, voice calling, sending emails and sharing videos are some of the most popular activities of the youngsters.

The popularity of text messaging could be gauged from the fact that most of the Indian newspapers too have mobile version and readers are updated from time to time about happenings. Also, many websites have surfaced claiming to provide text messaging free. According to a study done by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), the popularity of text messaging has increased all over India.

There are many crazy youngsters who are forking out something between Rs. 1,000 and Rs. 1,500 every month only on SMS packages, claims the study report that was carried in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Patna, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Jaipur. To get the right picture, representatives from ASSOCHAM spoke to as many as 2,000 youngsters in the age group of 12-20 years during January 2011 to April 2011.

D.S. Rawat, secretary general, ASSOCHAM, who released the findings recently, said: "Sending and receiving text messages has become primary means of communication, so much so that excessive texting has become an obsession amongst youngsters."

Also, there are concerns that excessive texting can have a debilitating impact on youngsters. Rawat said: "Excessive texting is leading to a number of problems for our kids as they are developing problems like insomnia, depression, lack of eating, isolation etc. Besides, according to reports of chamber's analysis prolonged engagement with such an activity can lead to diseases like brain tumor, infertility etc."