But even though text messaging can be a great escape, they also can get you in big trouble. Take Detroit’s Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick for example. His obsession with text messaging exposed the dirt he was into and might give him a one way ticket to jail, divorce and impeachment.

Text messaging is one of the latest and greatest technological advances of the 21st century. But with pleasure comes annoyance and what could potentially turn me against text messaging are those chain messages that some people feel so compelled to forward to everyone in their phone book.

I can almost guarantee that everyone has received at least one of these messages at sometime during their possession of a cell phone. If you haven’t, congratulations. At first they can be fun, but after a while the game gets old and the text messages become really irritating.

Sometimes I wonder who actually sits down and takes the time to write these text messages. I can’t say that the creators aren’t clever because they use everything from religion to love to get people to forward the messages to their friends.

But honestly, what sense does it make to forward a message to 10 people if they’re just going to send it back to you? By the time you and your friends are done exchanging text messages, you’ll have multiple copies of the same text message filling up your in-box and possibly adding money to your bill.

Some people are just so gullible.

When I receive messages that read something along the lines of “Forward this message to everyone if you love God and you’re not ashamed to tell people,” it makes me question what the sender was trying to prove. If you feel the need to forward this message, then what does that say about your faith?

And then there are the really beautiful text messages that tell you how great of a person you are and how much your friendship is valued. But then the message is ruined because the end reads “A real friend will forward this to all of their true friends, including the person that sent it to you.”

What a great way to make someone feel like a bad friend if they don’t send it back to you. I honestly hope people don’t actually base the strength of their friendship on a grammatically incorrect text message.

Don’t get me wrong, some of these text messages can be inspirational and it’s times like those that I don’t mind them.

For example, I was having a really bad day when I received a chain message from my cousin that read: “God told me to tell you that everything is going to be fine and that there are blessings in store for you.” Even though the text specified that I had to forward it to 10 people to receive those blessings — and I didn’t — it helped me get through the rest of my stressful day.

Chain text messages can be funny and cute and they might even brighten your day, but when they make people question their faith and their relationships, that’s when they become bothersome.

To all you innovators, here’s an idea to rake in some big bucks: Invent a spam blocker for cell phones. I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s tired of receiving junk text messages. Until then, to those of you who feel the need to pass along every meaningless chain message you get, for the sake of money and cell phone memory, please keep the forwarding to a minimum.

BTW if you dont pass this column on to 10 ppl 2morrow will be the worst day of ur lyfe. j/k. LOL.

Keiara Tenant is the State News opinion writer. Reach her at tennan10@msu.edu.