May 1, 2004
Practise safe text
Josey Vogels from Saturday's GlobeandMail.com believes the combination of technology, sex and celebrity is impossible to resist and that "text messaging has become the new phone sex, with the British press weighing in about the ethics of "having a textie".
"Text messaging is the modern way to flirt and users should beware, "sext messaging" has a disinhibiting effect, like having a couple of cocktails.
Long popular in Europe and Asia as a cheaper alternative to land lines and cellphone airtime, texting is also changing the way we relate to the opposite sex.
-- In England, it's being used as a medium for setting up anonymous sexual encounters.
-- In Australia, text messaging is the medium of choice for young people, who use their phones more often to type than to speak.
-- And in India, texting is being blamed for promoting "Western-style dating."
People also like it because they see it as discreet. But the feeling of security can be misleading, as the Beckham case indicates. Some phones will store many messages, which can be accessed later by others. That's why Ken Truffen, director of wireless data marketing for Bell Mobility, says text messagers should lock their phones when not using them".
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