The ruling government in the Congo has opted to ban SMS texting in an effort to prevent more violence in the wake of contested elections, and to prevent mass protests. Given how ubiquitous texting has become, it’s no doubt a scary time for the average citizen of the Congo. Moreso if that person happens to be deaf.

Cell phones have changed college life for sure. I mean, back in the day, people used to actually have hardwired phones in their dorms and stuff. Right? I don’t even know. I’m not that old. In any event, there’s no arguing that among people who are using their phones to the fullest extent possible, college kids are right up there. But what exactly are the using them for? This infographic from HackCollege jumps right into that.

As it turns out, a whopping 94% of college students are texting everyday, 97% of those with smartphones are using them for social networking and 88% regularly text in class. Of course, there are some exceptions to these rules. The one I find the most confusing is that apparently only 75% of college students sleep with their phones next to them. How is that not 100%? Where else would you keep a phone at night? Does anyone actually still use dedicated alarm clocks? I guess so, but I find that pretty hard to believe.

Full infographic after the jump.

A new study from the Pew Research Council foundation looking at cellphone use in America seems to have determined that those massive texting plan upgrades are worth their weight in gold. The study found, among other things, that cell phone users between the ages 18-24 exchange an average 109.5 text messages per day. This works out to roughly 50 per person, and over 1,500 individually each month.

This is a pretty shocking increase from the overall median surveyed, who only send 10 text messages per day. Interestingly, the  survey contacted some 2,277 adults via phone, 755 of these via cellphone. This means that despite 83% of Americans owning a cellphone, 1,500 odd persons still use a landline as their primary means of contact. It appears that no one was contacted via text message, and one wonders how that might have further skewed the results.

(Pew Research via Techmeme, image via Greg Robleto)

In an attempt to update 911 to current trends in modern technology, the Federal Communications Commission is looking to have the emergency service respond to text messages and video streaming from mobile phones. Though it may seem a little ridiculous at first, allowing for text messages and streaming video would actually help people report crimes without being overheard.

“Teens send an average of 34 texts a night (adding up to 3,400 a month) after going to bed — in some cases up to four hours after hitting the sack, found researchers from JFK Medical Center, in Edison, N.J.

The evidence has been mounting that teens mightily prefer texting to actual contact with family members, with studies from Nielsen and Kaiser contributing data that show teens consider the loss of a cell phone more dire than the loss of an internal organ.”

–The next generation’s technological habits are egregious and highly upsetting, just as this generation’s technological habits were egregious and highly upsetting to our forebears. Seriously, though, get some sleep, your bones are still growing.

(via MSNBC.com. title pic via ICHCB.)

OnStar, General Motors’ driving assistance service, has plans to add voice-to-text and text-to-voice Facebook and texting functionality to an update later this month.

Yesterday, Tiger Woods ex-paramour Joslyn James released a transcript of her text messages from the lust-addled golfer. Being the egregious nerds that we are, we looked at this cesspit of lurid language and explicit sexytalk and saw only one thing…

…beauteous, beauteous data!

Click below to see a tag cloud of the most common words in Tiger’s sexts, generated thanks to the magic of Wordle.