A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that drivers distracted by text message are 23 times more likely to be in a crash than drivers that are not sending or receiving a text message.

Drivers typing a text message spend 4.6 seconds out of every 6 seconds looking away from the road.  If going 55 MPH, that means drivers are not looking at the road for the length of a football field.

The Text Message Blog supports the Don’t Text and Drive Association on Facebook.  Please join to show your support for our drive against texting.

We’ve all seen it.  Teens glued to their cell phones sending text messages…to the kid on the other side of the room.

But, just how much do teens text?

Nielsen analyzed over 40,000 mobile phone bills of USA teens to determine their texting habits.  The research firm found that American teens send an average of 10 text messages per hour while awake.  That’s an average of 3,146 text messages per month!

Wonder how many text messages children send?  Try 1,146 per month among those aged 9 - 12.

Gold medalist Lindsey Vonn

NBC’s Olympics Mobile platform amassed 54.3 million page views in the first ten days of the Olympics.  For the Beijing games, the entire total for the 17-day event was 34.7 million.  1.3 million of those page views have been in the form of mobile streams.

NBC has to be happy.  This is now the most watched winter Olympics of all time.

Tiger can drive mobile views too.

No, by all accounts Tiger Woods still trails Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain in the category of most lifetimes sexual partners, but he broke another major record yesterday.

ESPN Mobile logged 1.1 million page views of news surrounding Woods on its mobile web site as the golfer gave his scripted apology.  It was the biggest mobile video day of 2010.  In fact, three of the top six videos in all of February were of the Woods apology.  And, viewers, even mobile viewers, just couldn’t get enough; they watched 9.3 minutes of the full 13 minute statement.

by Bob Bentz

Nearly two years ago, this author wrote in this publication that John McCain just didn’t get it.

John McCain with his new cell phone.

John McCain had just told a reporter during the presidential campaign that when it comes to computers: “I am an illiterate who has to rely on my wife for all of the assistance that I can get.”

For most of us that work in the internet business, McCain’s fate was sealed when he said he “couldn’t get on” (a computer) without his wife’s assistance. How could he run the country when he couldn’t get on a computer without his wife’s help?

Well, John McCain finally does get it!

On Wednesday, Senator McCain launched a new campaign website to provide Arizona voters with information about his campaign. The site is attractive, easy to navigate, and even…youthful.

“I’m very excited to see this new release of the web site,” said McCain. “I’m committed to using the latest tools and newest technology to reach voters across Arizona.”

It is said that as you get older, you get wiser. And, John McCain is a very wise man. He committed to not make the same mistake in the 2010 Arizona senatorial election that he made in 2008 when President Obama utilized new technology such as the internet, social networking, and mobile marketing while the McCain campaign simply ignored it.

Obama not only used new technology, he embraced it. His famous text message announcement of his vice-presidential running mate was sent to 2.9 million voters that chose to opt-in to his mobile marketing database.

Not to be out-done, albeit two years late, Senator McCain now has his own text message campaign. Arizonans can text McCain to 69872 to sign up for text message alerts. According to the McCain campaign team, the campaign will utilize texting to inform Arizonans about upcoming events, announce endorsements, and share breaking news—all sent instantly to the mobile phone.

A year after the election, with two wars, a sluggish economy, and an unpopular health care bill, maybe John McCain is happy he was still living in the dark ages two years ago.

It’s one of those inappropriate comments that Michael Scott (Steve Carell) is known for on “The Office.”  And, it’s so inappropriate, especially in a business setting, that you have to laugh…every time.

“That’s what she said.”

NBC is banking on text messages to promote The Office syndication schedule by launching a text message sweepstakes based on Scott’s trademark raunchy line.  The Office viewers will have a chance to win $10,000 “bonus checks” from Dunder Mifflin. 

Viwers need to enter the word that she said each night during the syndicated episode of The Office on your local station.  Viewers can enter via the internet or via text message by sending the word of the day to short code 839863.

The Office contest runs through February 26 so there’s plenty of time to get on it; it’s not hard.

“That’s what she said.”

Previous posts on the Text Message Blog have discussed text message breakups and sexting by Tiger Woods and just ordinary people.

In this video, Katie Couric reports on text message break ups and the massive amount of text messages that are being sent today.

Over one in five teens admit to sexting — the sending of salacious text messages or photos via cell phone.

One in three teens say they have received a sexting message. This is not surprising given the viral effect of such messages.

Katie Couric talks about text messaging and driving. Be sure to have your teen driver watch this.

Dirty text messages are not just something that Tiger Woods does!  Apparently, John Mayer is into sexting

John Mayer sends dirty text messages too.

as well.

“I can text whatever I want to anybody in the world; I’m not married,” said Mayer, 32.  “I write a lot of dirty text messages to girls, and you’ve never seen any of them.”

Mayer goes on to say that the only reason that Tiger Woods is in hot water from his racy text messages is that Tiger was married.  “If a girl brought a dirty text message from me to the newspapers, they’d say, ‘I don’t have an angle here,” said Mayer.

Apparently, Tiger’s over-sexting appetite has got him into some more trouble and this time with porn star Joslyn James. On Wednesday, James released some of her tawdry text messages from the world’s greatest golfer.

“You please me like no other has or ever will,” Woods wrote to James on Oct. 1, 2009. “I am not losing that.”

James, who spoke at the office of attorney Glorida Allred (the same attorney that represented Rachel Uchitel),  said she spoke out now because she is angry that a Canadian company has put her portrait on a golf ball it is selling as part of its “Mistress Collection.” The set includes a dozen golf balls emblazoned with pictures of Uchitel, Jaime Grubbs and other women linked to Tiger Woods.

“I feel that it is wrong for a golf ball to have my picture on it because golfers hit their golf balls with a lot of force,” James said.