Look everyone! A very scientific study from Canada has found that teens who text upwards of 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed, and motivated by wealth. Also, they're probably terrible spellers.

The study from the University of Winnipeg suggests that these rabid texters are 30% less likely to feel strongly that leading an "ethical, principled life" is important to them. Also, they turned out to be a little more racist. The study uses data from an online survey completed by 2,300 first-year psychology students over the course of three consecutive years.

And the test, it seems, was inspired by the "shallowing hypothesis" first described by Nicholas Carr in his 2010 book The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. Basically the idea is that heavy use of Twitter and texting for communication creates a world in which people only ever have rapid and fairly shallow thoughts, and superficial opinions. Of course the world has always been filled with shallow people, and superficial opinions, but have these new venues for expression made them more acceptable or something?

Anyway, it sounds vaguely technophobic, and clearly if you're texting over 100 times a day you probably don't have much time for book-learnin'. But wtvr. ttyl.

[CBC]
[Toronto Sun]