The Text Messaging Craze: Lots of Connection, Little Content

Curious -- or concerned -- about this whole "texting" thing that so many students like to do in class, after class, at home, etc.? Today's Times explains what it's all about -- and tries to make sense of why it's so popular: The Pleasures of the Text.

According to the Times, the universal attraction of text messaging is that it's "a kind of avoidance mechanism that preserves the feeling of communication - the immediacy - without, for the most part, the burden of actual intimacy or substance."