THE TEN COMMANDMENTS OF TEXTING

                     Rather than making a conventional New Year's resolution like losing weight, trashing a bad habit or getting a better job, I believe that anyone who strives to be (or already is) a "textpert" should follow these "10 Commandments of Texting" for the year 2011.
                    Or, if you are reflecting on your texting habits from the past year and realize that you strive to be a textpert, your New Year's resolution should not involve anything cliched.
                    If you are simply in a struggle to become the best texter you can be, follow these rules for the year 2011 and you'll be a pro.
                   Some of these commandments are just my texting pet peeves, but they all are rules that every cell phone user needs to acknowledge:

1. You shall not write "hahahaha" excessively out of habit to start a text.  If things aren't funny, then you don't need to act like you're rotfl.
2. Don't send your texts to the wrong person!  Always check who you are sending your text to before you actually send it  -- to avoid serious confusion and possible embarrassment.  Forty-fivepercent of teens resolved to do just this in a poll conducted by the app textPlus.
3. You shall not text unless you need to.  If you must text during movies, school or social events, at least have the decency to make it unnoticeable.  Engage in conversation rather than useless text convo!
4. Remember who you are texting -- and don't leave them hanging.  If you are tied up in some other activity, tell the person that you 'll shoot them a text later and that you have gig.
5. Honor your words.  Just because you've typed something over text doesn't mean that you never said it.  You can delete a text, but you can't delete what you thought.
6. You shall not drop, throw, play sports with and therefore injure your phone.  Texting is only possible when you have a phone on which to do it.
7. You shall not misspell simple words!  Yes, abbreviations like "idk," "btw," "brb," "lol" and "gtg" are acceptable, but when it comes to words like "maybe," "definitely," "probably," "there" (vs. "they're" or "their")... well, these should be words that you learned during your spelling tests in third grade.  My rule is that if you're old enough to have a phone, you should know how to spell. (Thirty-two percent of the teens surveyed in the textPlus poll are behind me on this one.)
8. You shall refrain from annoying message alerts!  I'm almost 100 percent positive that no one wants to hear them, especially if someone's is blowing up your phone with texts.
9. You shall not be a boring texter or talk to boring texters.  If the entire conversation consists of: "Hey, Hey. Whats up? Nmu. Same. Cool. Yeah," then you're better off not talking to them at all.
10. You shall not type novels to people.  There is a magical way to communicate with someone other than sending them a long and wordy text: calling!  It's crazy, I know.