One topic of conversation among faculty this year is the increasing futility of trying to control student texting in the classroom. (I'm considering confiscating cellphones next semester.)

Spend any time around young people and you know that this is approaching a compulsion with a lot of kids. This generation seems unable and unwilling to unplug itself for even a few minutes. I found myself sitting next to an otherwise polite young student at an awards luncheon this spring and got just a little annoyed to find that she had her cel in her lap the whole time, texting away.

I thought it was rude, but it turns out it's also pretty common.

I've wondered what the long term impact of all this is on their ability to enjoy life, to process information and even to be able to write a long-form piece--an activity that demands long stretches of concentrated time.

Scientists are starting to figure it out, according to this piece in the New York Times.

Over at the Washington Post Color of Money column, writer Michele Singletary has some absolute freak tales about the high cost of teen texting.

Personal Finance  Thursday, April 16, 2009 The Cost of Texting Teens Imagine Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen's surprise when they got their monthly Verizon cell phone bill and it totaled $4,756.25 for texting messages by their teen. It seems the couple's 13-year-old daughter, Dena, had sent out about 10,000 text messages and received about the same amount in a one-month period. Dena, who did most of her texting while at school, no longer has a cell phone. Her dad took a hammer to it. You can see more about this story here. So, the Color of Money question this week is: How would you have handled an almost $5,000 cell phone by your teen? Was Dena's dad right to hammer his child's cell? Personally, my 14-year-old doesn't have a cell phone and stories like this just give me more ammunition not to cave to her nagging for one. Just in case this story wasn't enough, read about another 13-year-old teen, who racked up 14,528 text messages in one month. And yet another teen, this one 15, who accrued 6,473 texts in one month. Send your comments to this week's question to colorofmoney@washpost.com. In the subject line, please put "COM Question of the Week." Here are two Web sites that offer some tips on how to control your teen's talking and texting use: * How to Manage Your Teens Cell Phone Use * Text Messaging Among a Generation of Digital Natives