Sexting: It’s not just for teens anymore

New study also shows a mere 1 in 4 people text partners when they're both home.

Read the whole story

 

[daggar]

Widespread communication channel used to discuss widespread behavior.

The only thing that's surprising is that anyone finds this surprising.

 

[foreignreign]

A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room.

"A shocking low"?

What's shocking to me is that 1 out of 4 people do text each other while at home.

Then again, I tend to not carry my phone around me when I'm at home and leave it on my desk.

 

[MrPickins]

A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room.

Or it just means we get up off our asses to go talk to our SOs face to face.

It would take longer to send a text. And then I have to hope that she has her phone on her person.


Edit: I see this was sarcasm on the part of the author. Should have used sartalics.

 

[TheAce-MGT]

"A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room."

Please tell me that this was sarcasm, and you don't text your significant other instead of talking to them when they're near by. This wouldn't even be possible at my home, both our phones live attached to charging cords out of reach of a toddler when home.

 

[Kurenai]

On par with pretty much every technology development ever.

Technologist: "I've invented a really cool new thing that will help spread knowledge and improve the quality of li-"

Public: "Can it be used for porn?"

Technologist: "I.. uh. suppose so?"

Public: "Great! brb, boobs"

Technologist: "But we should be focusing on the good this can do"

Public: "AFK, boobs"

 

[Deleted member 1]

I wonder how many NSA agents are sitting at a computer somewhere looking at illicit pictures of someone's poorly supervised teenaged daughter...

Think before you hit send.

 

[caseyjohnston]

TheAce-MGT[/url]":2aj8gqsh]"A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room."

Please tell me that this was sarcasm, and you don't text your significant other instead of talking to them when they're near by. This wouldn't even be possible at my home, both our phones live attached to charging cords out of reach of a toddler when home.

It was sarcasm.

 

[foreignreign]

t1oracle[/url]":mksctu7r]I wonder how many NSA agents are sitting at a computer somewhere looking at illicit pictures of someone's poorly supervised teenaged daughter...

Think before you hit send.

If it means that every so often an NSA agent has to stare at my junk, I think I'll continue to send pictures of my junk.




... and by junk I totally mean the trash I throw out to the curb once a week.

 

[TheAce-MGT]

caseyjohnston[/url]":33sndos0]

TheAce-MGT[/url]":33sndos0]"A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room."

Please tell me that this was sarcasm, and you don't text your significant other instead of talking to them when they're near by. This wouldn't even be possible at my home, both our phones live attached to charging cords out of reach of a toddler when home.

It was sarcasm.

So straw poll at the office.
We have a video chat (google hangout), phone call, and 2 no use of phone in home...

So I guess, I take your texting and raise you with video chat.

 

[daggar]

Kurenai[/url]":1so1fgt8]On par with pretty much every technology development ever.

Technologist: "I've invented a really cool new thing that will help spread knowledge and improve the quality of li-"

Public: "Can it be used for porn?"

Technologist: "I.. uh. suppose so?"

Public: "Great! brb, boobs"

Technologist: "But we should be focusing on the good this can do"

Public: "AFK, boobs"

If you're conflating "people in a relationship talking about sex" with "porn," then your attitude about sex is far more distructive than the sexting public at large.

 

[exick]

There are far more uses of the word "sext" in this article than I'm comfortable with. Just reading the word in my own head, not even aloud, and having to contemplate the fact that it's now part of our vocabulary is making me re-evaluate my life.

 

[strohminator]

There was an amusing discussion on password-sharing with your spouse on the Washington Post site a few weeks ago. Basically, people who were over 35 and married for a few years didn't see password sharing as a big deal, but younger single people said they would never let their current/future significant other look at their e-mail.

 

[Elij17]

So what does "sext" mean? I always thought "sexting" was the sending / receipt of racy pictures. Does, "Oh, you have no idea what I'm going to do to you when I get home from work." count as a sext? My girlfriend and I do the latter constantly, the former never.

 

[Spazmodica]

I think the high rate of sexting among teenagers is a problem, mostly because of the percentage of dirtbags who will forward those messages, and then you have situations where they end up on the Internet or shared among a group.

 

[Panick]

foreignreign[/url]":f7e07ga1]

A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room.

"A shocking low"?

What's shocking to me is that 1 out of 4 people do text each other while at home.

Then again, I tend to not carry my phone around me when I'm at home and leave it on my desk.

This doesn't seem that odd to me. I used to IM a coworker who sat in the same cubicle right behind me all the time and we used to joke about how insane it was that we weren't just talking to each other. But you can text or IM with someone while doing other things but when you talk to people they seem to take offense if you're not paying complete attention to the conversation.

 

[TheVanguard]

Elij17[/url]":1x550g1z]So what does "sext" mean? I always thought "sexting" was the sending / receipt of racy pictures. Does, "Oh, you have no idea what I'm going to do to you when I get home from work." count as a sext? My girlfriend and I do the latter constantly, the former never.

Personally, I'd consider sexting the message after the one you quote, where you might actually describe what it is your girlfriend has no idea about. But it's most likely subjective, so if you count that as sexting then it is.

Although in my opinion, no, sending pictures is not sexting.

 

[Spazmodica]

strohminator[/url]":1tdfqjxg]There was an amusing discussion on password-sharing with your spouse on the Washington Post site a few weeks ago. Basically, people who were over 35 and married for a few years didn't see password sharing as a big deal, but younger single people said they would never let their current/future significant other look at their e-mail.

It seems kind of funny that young people would be aghast at letting someone see their email, yet have no problem sending potentially compromising pictures to someone who in many cases they barely know.

 

[daggar]

Elij17[/url]":4p9ira99]So what does "sext" mean? I always thought "sexting" was the sending / receipt of racy pictures. Does, "Oh, you have no idea what I'm going to do to you when I get home from work." count as a sext? My girlfriend and I do the latter constantly, the former never.

All of that would fit inside the most commonly used sense of the word. Headline-grabbing scare word is vague and misleading, news at eleven.

 

[bburdge]

TheAce-MGT[/url]":32bmaz8y]"A shocking low of 25 percent of respondents in a relationship have texted each other while they were both at home, meaning a whopping 75 percent are still yelling for each other from room to room."

Please tell me that this was sarcasm, and you don't text your significant other instead of talking to them when they're near by. This wouldn't even be possible at my home, both our phones live attached to charging cords out of reach of a toddler when home.

It seems like this would heavily depend on the size and layout of the home as well. My house has my desk in the basement, and our bedroom on the 2nd floor, frequently I text my wife from my desk because climbing two flights of stairs just to ask if she paid a bill, or what she wants for dinner is rough on the knees.

Alternatively I yell until one of the kids comes down and make them play messenger. But with the unreliability of children, texting is generally less likely to start with "Ask mommy what she wants for dinner." and return with "Yes, I told the kids they could have a puppy."

 

[xaqattax]

The joint emails aren't too confusing but the joint Facebook profiles are a little weird. I never know which one is replying to me. Am I being sarcastically insulted by spouse A or seduced by spouse B? If the answer is B exactly WHICH one is it? Because that's a whoooole other train of thought.

 

[Terabitman]

TheAce-MGT[/url]":2x4ri1lj] This wouldn't even be possible at my home, both our phones live attached to charging cords out of reach of a toddler when home.

that's terrible for your battery health. just sayin'

 

[racca]

Elij17[/url]":2avrh65r]So what does "sext" mean? I always thought "sexting" was the sending / receipt of racy pictures. Does, "Oh, you have no idea what I'm going to do to you when I get home from work." count as a sext? My girlfriend and I do the latter constantly, the former never.

Both count.

I guess I'm part of the 25% that text my spouse at home. Sometimes it's because she's up in the bedroom watching TV and I don't want to disturb her. She'll respond to the text when she has time. Sometimes it's because I want to tell her something without the kids hearing. Occasionally it's sexting as foreplay. The word itself is dumb, but the activity is great fun.

 

[kbarb]

Not totally apropos, nevertheless . . .

 

[aliksy]

daveIT[/url]":r4jnxikn]I've never received or sent a sext. Let me know if you want to start Casey.

Whoa. Let's keep this post handy for the next time we write one of those articles about women on the internet.

 

[Maltz]

Sexting: It’s not just for teens and US representatives anymore

FTFY.

 

[Leiesoldat]

I want to know how many of that 4% over 55 were the result of their intoxicated children accidentally sending racy texts to them instead of others.

 

[MainframeGuy]

Only older folks are still sharing e-mail accounts (47 percent of those 65 and older), apparently unaware that e-mail is now free as in lunch.

We're still a couple of decades of falling into that age bracket, but my wife and I maintain a shared email account as well as separate accounts. For some things it's easier/better to have an email address that goes to both of us. Pretty much anything dealing with anything we own or buy goes to the joint email. Personal communication goes to the personal email accounts, as does things that the other doesn't care about.

It's easy enough to aggregate multiple email accounts into one view in GMail, and email addresses are "free as in lunch", so why not make best use of them by having multiple (including shared) email addresses?

 

[pokrface]

My wife and I text and IM each other from the same room. It's a really convenient way to share funny gifs.

And we also have each others' PINs and 1Password passwords—it's just convenient. Plus, if one of us is hit by a bus or something terrible, we already can get into the others' accounts.

 

[Iphtashu Fitz]

TheAce-MGT[/url]":1qmpalv7]
Please tell me that this was sarcasm, and you don't text your significant other instead of talking to them when they're near by.

My office is on a third floor converted attic. What's wrong with my wife texting me when I'm working up there and she's on the ground floor, outside in the yard, or doing laundry in the basement? It's convenient & sure beats her yelling up the stairs to get my attention.

Just because something doesn't apply to your own personal situation don't go assuming it's the same universally.

 

[fullfathomdeep]

My girlfriend and I text each other when we're in the house...I didn't think it was that unusual.

Edit: Yeah, what that guy above me said - when we're on different floors of the house it's just more convenient to send a quick text.

 

[ExMancunium]

My parents have a joint e-mail account. It gets quite frustrating when you're trying to have a conversation with one of them and the other keeps hijacking it by replying to the last mail I sent, plus I'm never sure if the right parent actually read the mail in question.

Pokrface[/url]":3smatwyj]My wife and I text and IM each other from the same room. It's a really convenient way to share funny gifs.

And we also have each others' PINs and 1Password passwords—it's just convenient. Plus, if one of us is hit by a bus or something terrible, we already can get into the others' accounts.

I'm not sure what the age difference between me and you is Lee, but a lot of my contemporaries think my wife and I are weird for dealing with this kind of thing. Is it that people in their 30s don't want to admit that things like getting hit by buses happens to people that age?
We have our wills written, instructions about funeral preferences, and while we don't know all of each others passwords we both know where to find the list of contact details, account logins etc. It just seems to make sense given that I ride a motorbike and enjoy other pastimes which people might describe as stupid and/or dangerous. That way she won't end up getting chased for my Flickr subscription 2 years after I'm dead.

 

[Dilbert]

Seriously? We've never done this and we live in a 3 floor house (if you count the garage downstairs). We've never used anything else other than walk around and find the other person. Message while in the house? Boggles. It'd never occur to me.

Also, we use e-mail. Secure e-mail. I don't want a sleazebag corp being able to read my texts.

 

[jdale]

Elij17[/url]":3ioku4aa]So what does "sext" mean? I always thought "sexting" was the sending / receipt of racy pictures. Does, "Oh, you have no idea what I'm going to do to you when I get home from work." count as a sext? My girlfriend and I do the latter constantly, the former never.

It's ambiguous in the article but the source seems to indicate they mean pictures only. Urbandictionary seems to indicate texts only. I conclude that reporting on sexting without defining what you mean is as meaningless as reporting temperature without units.

E.g. the article says "The report includes a lengthy section on sexting, that most fraught of online practices." But if that's just text messages, I think "most fraught" is overwraught.

The source says "Sexting, or sending sexually suggestive nude or nearly nude photos and videos via cell phone, is practiced by couples and singles alike." Which I think means they are defining it as sending images, not texts, but it could be clearer. The specifics seem to indicate images only:

"9% of adult cell owners have sent a sext of themselves to someone else, up from 6% of cell owners who said this in 2012.
20% of cell owners have received a sext of someone else they know on their phone, up from 15% who said this in 2012."

You don't send a text "of yourself", that wouldn't make any sense.

 

[aquasub]

Spazmodica[/url]":315ajl8x]

strohminator[/url]":315ajl8x]There was an amusing discussion on password-sharing with your spouse on the Washington Post site a few weeks ago. Basically, people who were over 35 and married for a few years didn't see password sharing as a big deal, but younger single people said they would never let their current/future significant other look at their e-mail.

It seems kind of funny that young people would be aghast at letting someone see their email, yet have no problem sending potentially compromising pictures to someone who in many cases they barely know.

10 years later, their attitude would probably change.

ETA: both about sharing passwords and about the photos

 

[daveIT]

It was sarcasm. :facepalm:

 

[Deranged]

How is "sexting" really any different than telling someone over the phone, or in person? I don't get the moral panicking about that at all. I think part of is that it's young people exploring their sexuality ("what? young people aren't just holding hands and watch rom coms?") in ways older people haven't, and that obviously must be bad, because sex, right?

The thing people SHOULD be crying out about is how some idiots spread the material they've received, instead of putting the blame on an entirely healthy practice of turning each other on.

 

[Forensics Person]

Deranged[/url]":cd6fnop6]How is "sexting" really any different than telling someone over the phone, or in person? I don't get the moral panicking about that at all. I think part of is that it's young people exploring their sexuality ("what? young people aren't just holding hands and watch rom coms?") in ways older people haven't, and that obviously must be bad, because sex, right?

The thing people SHOULD be crying out about is how some idiots spread the material they've received, instead of putting the blame on an entirely healthy practice of turning each other on.

Its easy to deny that you said what you said when you said it whereas its difficult to deny you typed what you typed when you typed it.

 

[Blue Adept]

I text my wife from inside of the house all the time, sometimes from the same room. We both have our phones near us nearly all the time.

When in the same room, it's often to share a web link. On the same floor of a house, it can be easier than yelling or getting up. We aren't necessarily in the same room. A text might be convenient so as not to interrupt her watching TV. Sometimes the text is convenient for the next time she has web access on her phone or a reminder of something to do when she is by her phone. Whatever... It doesn't supplant us having a voice conversation in any real way.