This peice of journalism about Australia might be interesting in this context.  It interviews a sample of one teenager:)

http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2004/s1033543.htm

Extracts:

People from 12-23 in Oz generate the bulk of the 400 million text messages made on mobile phones each month.

this is at 25c per message.  The head of Virgin mobiles in Oz says that voice calls have plateaued but text messaging has become the new way to communicate.  He says its shorter, it's quicker, it's discreet.

It seems that the need for being in contact without disturbing the current activity is powerful.

Also used to make more money out of TV shows, by making them seem interactive. 

Leads young people into serious debt because of ways of billing. 

This all *suggests* that the medium of communication while not giving us new formats of community may act to intensify old ones 

jon



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