For one family, texting is the most essential form of communication

Jenna and Brianna Dayton are sitting five feet from each other. They’re both laughing, in unison, probably at someone else in the room’s expense. They don’t even have to look at each other.

“Sometimes you just can’t say things out loud,” Brianna says. “You have to text it.”

Jenna agrees, adding, “Everyone doesn’t have to know what you’re saying.”

They both giggle.

Their cousin Alex deadpans, “I hate you.”

“I don’t even know what I would do,” she said. “I’d be lost beyond belief.” Brianna uses her phone, a Motorola Env3, to stay connected with friends and to pass the time when she is bored. She especially likes texting her friends throughout the day to see what they are up to. Like many young people, Brianna prefers texting as her main form of phone communication.

“It’s just easier,” she said. “You can talk to people without having to call them. If you’re at work or somewhere you can’t talk, you can still communicate.”

Jenna Dayton, 21, of Thomaston, agrees with this sentiment. She says she would be out of the loop with her friends and begin to lose contact with people she’s not as close with if she couldn’t text.

“Sometimes you just need to text someone,” she said. “You don’t want to take 10 minutes and call them and go through a whole conversation. You just need an answer, so you just text them and move on.”

Jenna, who owns a Blackberry curve, says her phone is her most useful possession.

“I need my phone to survive,” says Jenna. “How could you go a day [without it]? I can’t imagine it.”