Students find ‘texting tournament’ easier than expected

Xylophones run around clumsily as monkeys eat bananas. 

Four students mouth the words slowly as their thumbs begin to move rapidly.

“Done,” they shout in a matter of seconds, some astonishingly fast.

As part of the Saratoga Olympics, the Falcon held a texting contest in which one student from each grade competed to send a difficult text as fast as possible.

Freshman Fiona Sequeira finished in six seconds, sophomore Jonathan Oh in 25 seconds, junior Vanessa Wang in 12 seconds, and senior Sujay Khandekar in 15 seconds. Sequeira had a  Droid 3, Khandekar had the touch screen iPhone 4S, Oh had the slide out keyboard Samsung Intensity II and Wang had the slide out keyboard LG Cosmo.

“[The challenge] was kind of strange, but I found it applicable to the technological advances of today,” said Oh.

Many students find texting faster and easier than other methods of online communication. According to the company CellSigns, Americans send an average of 75 billion text messages every month.

“Texting is the most efficient way of communicating,” Sequeira said. “I text a lot.” 

“The challenge was weird,” Sequeira said, ”because a lot of the letters were really far apart, and I don’t use the word ‘xylophone’ very often.”

Regardless of the fact that “xylophone” is a difficult word, all the students were able to send the text in under 30 seconds.

“I thought it was quite interesting because I had to type something unusual,” Wang said, “but I didn't really feel stressed out about trying to type quickly because I'm used to it.”

Wang explained that she texts every day and often finds herself pulling out her phone every few minutes even if she is not expecting a message.

Wang, like Sequeira, agrees texting is more convenient than other forms of electronic communication.

“It’s easier and more efficient,” Sequeira said. “On Facebook you have to go online and sometimes people appear to be online but they really aren’t.”

The students agree that there are many advantages of texting, such as the quick responses and the convenience compared to having to establish a connection with another person and the ability to communicate almost anywhere with cell coverage.

  “If you’re looking for quick conversation, calling or chatting is more useful,” said Wang. “But not as convenient as simply pulling out your phone and texting people.”