Two South Korean nimble fingered teenagers have been crowned Fastest Texters in the World.
The team of 17-year-old Bae Yeong Ho and 18-year-old Ha Mok Min went against competitors from a dozen different countries to win the title at the The LG Mobile World Cup January 15 in New York City. The team schooled the rest of the competition in both speed accuracy to take home the $100,000 prize.
Second place and $20,000 went to the U.S. team, comprised of 16-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa and 14-year-old Morgan Dynda of Pooler, Ga. Moore is the 2009 U.S. National Texting Champion, and Dynda was the 2009 runner-up.
“My thumbs are up for the challenge,” Moore announced hours before the afternoon start time.
Located inside Manhattan’s Gotham Hall, the competitors texted for periods of time ranging from 2 minutes to an hour. Thumbs blurred as competitors copied words and phrases in their native language off of a monitor with no typos or abbreviations, required capitalization and punctuation as fast as possible. Some words were intentionally misspelled to test alertness.
Winners Ho and Min have big plans for their winnings. Ho is saving his $50,000 share of the grand prize to study as an opera singer and Min said she’s saving for her education to become an engineer.
The average kid texts about 2,000 times a month, but runner up Moore says she averages 12,000 texts per month, which one could argue is her main form of communication.
Moore said that although she’s almost always texting, the habit doesn’t effect her real life interactions. “I can talk and text at the same time, without looking at the phone.” I wonder if the people she’s talking to face to face would agree it’s the same quality interaction.
But she thinks everyone should text- anyone that wants to be accepted. “When you see someone who doesn’t have unlimited texting, it’s like, ‘What’s wrong with you?’”
Being made fun of based on your cell phone plan. Kids are really growing up fast these days.
She hasn’t been without consequence for her over active texting. After being caught texting in class, a teacher took her phone away, and her parents were asked to accompany her to the vice principal’s office to retrieve it.
If you are wondering why anyone would waste their time striving to be the fastest texter on the planet, it apparently teaches young girls self confidence.
“Girls are faster ’cause their hands are smaller,” Moore said. “I have perfect hands for texting — thin, long fingers. And fast, of course.”
Of course.
