Texting is a competitive sport in the new documentary “Thumbs”. It follows a group of teen texters to the LG National Texting Championship…and with bragging rights and $50,000 at stake, it’s high drama. The contest is reminiscent of traditional spelling bees- but with a hi-tech twist.
In one round, kids translate words into text speak- and no matter how fast they are- with just one error they could be sent packing. Mike Tollin on the left, produced the film directed by Bill Couturie. “In this film kids are spending their spare time texting and getting their thumbs in shape and improving their accuracy and their speed. It’s a whole new world.” According to a recent Pew study, 88 percent of teen cell phone users consider themselves text- messengers and more than half are daily texters. But that doesn’t mean they don’t make the grade. Producer Mike Tollin says “The kids that we follow are great students. They are athletes. They have other interests. ” But there are cautionary tales according to Couturie, “One girl that I film leaves her phone on all night long on top of her head and she is sleeping and it goes bzzzt. It wakes her up, she texts, she puts it back on her head she goes to sleep, she gets a response in two minutes. Bzzzt it wakes her up. And I said honey if we did this to terrorist subjects it would be considered torture and you are doing it to yourself”. Tollin and Couturie say they were inspired to make the film- after realizing they could only reach their own teenage kids by text . The film will air on MTV.
(Reuters)
