Text addict

If you were to tell me a couple of years ago that I would become addicted to texting from my phone, I would say that you were crazy. Why would I text from my phone? Hitting the keys multiple times to get the right letters, each word taking forever to spell out, those annoying abbreviations and shortenings and using numbers for sounds (l8er, or is that l8r?), how is that writing? And yet, here I sit two years l8er staring at my cell phone bill and realising that I have been charged an extra $24 in texting fees. This is also why I am on hold with my provider to extend my text plan so this doesn't happen again. Messaging has become so common place and natural to me that it has extended to my phone. My friends have also become bitten by the texting bug and text me, I text them back, the cycle repeats over and over. Why call them when you can write? Why bother them when you know that their phone can buzz and they can choose to read and respond or not depending on their day, as opposed to having to immediately answer an insistent ring? What is it about texting that is more appealing? Whatever it is, it is now costing me $4 extra per month.