Texting: Hazard to Your Teen's Health?

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Several psychologists are studying the technology of texting and the impact it is having on young people.

There have been reports of teens texting so much that they're suffering injuries to their thumbs. That has some wondering if they're embracing the technology too much.

It's the technology teenagers can't seem to do without. Texting is how many young people socialize and communicate these days.

Ninth grader Julien Guichard has been texting since he was in seventh grade.

"My bill was very high, and they wanted me to stop texting," he told FOX 5.

In some cases, the technology has turned bad. Some studies show students send hundreds of texts per day—all day and all night.

"I have like 4,000 text messages a month," said Corissa Weezy, another teen.

Experts say it's a distraction in school and leads to bad grades, stress and a lack of sleep.

"I was texting and I wasn't paying attention, and I tripped down the stairs," admitted Guichard.

A recent Nielson report says American teens sent an average of 2,272 text messages per month in the fourth quarter of 2008.

"It's quite a distraction, but I think they're just raised on the stuff, it's a different world," said Todd Farchione, a research assistant professor at Boston University's Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders.

Farchione says he sees technology impacting our lives both positively and negatively.

"I think any of this technology can be good in some circumstances and can be used in a non-productive, non-adaptive way as well it can be helpful to somebody, and in other circumstances it can be non-adaptive, and can really be a pattern of avoidance," explained Farchione.

Lotte Nent won't let her 11-year-old daughter text or have a phone at this point.

"I don't think its an appropriate time for it," Nent explained. "She is too young for all that stuff.

Nent added that when the time comes, she'll communicate with her daughter and they'll discuss it together.

"We would make set rules and negotiate as time goes by," said Nent.

According to Dr. Gary Small, author of iBrain: Surviving the Technological Altercation of the Modern Mind, the average young person spends eight and a half hours a day being exposed to digital technology.