22 contestants text while running and blindfolded for cash
Next time you ask your teen to "stop texting," you may want to think twice. Your teenager may be gearing up for the National Texting Championship – and the fat check that's bestowed upon the winner.
In New York yesterday, 22 contestants, 22 years old or younger, stretched their thumbs and prepared to test their texting dexterity at the third LG US National Texting Championship. The contest was sponsored by the mobile-phones division of LG Electronics, based in Seoul, South Korea. The 22 finalists, plucked from 250,000 eager texters, competed against each other over two days. Some of the challenges consisted of texting while blindfolded (a Harris Interactive Study reported that 42 percent of teens say they can text blindfolded) and texting while walking on a treadmill.
The competition concluded with a final face-off between 14-year-old Morgan Dynda of Savannah, Ga. and 15-year-old Kate Moore of Des Moines, Iowa, who were both asked to text three phrases from the chorus of the song "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," as fast as they could using proper capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations.
Ultimately, Moore had the fastest– and the most flawless – fingers (she got two of the three phrases correct). The speedy texter, who says she sends 14,000 texts-per-month, was named the 2009 LG US National Texting Champion and awarded $50,000 for her skills. After her title was announced, the teen promptly wrote a text message – "I just won $50,000" – and sent it off to her friends.
As for her advice to aspiring text champions and their parents, "Let your kid text during dinner! Let your kid text during school. It pays off," she told the Associated Press.
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