iBrow?

This person is Pittsburgh-area graphic designer Justine Ezarik. The brows are not terrible (a little too much thinning, too soon). But I originally noticed her because she was the subject of a series of "news" stories in the last few months. Why?


She bought an iPhone and then got her first phone bill from AT&T, which was sent in a box, because it was more than 300 pages long. Her outrage at this waste of paper was perhaps justified, and yes, she turned it into a mini-campaign to get people to sign up for online billing for all their accounts - cell phone, utilities, banking, etc.

But if you watch the video clip embedded at the end of this posting, you will hear something remarkable. If you're like me, the first thing you'll say upon seeing this person is, "don't thin your eyebrows so much." The second thing is, "How does she get a phone bill 300 pages long?" Here's how:

35,000 text messages per month.

OK, let's do the math.

• Let's be charitable and say it's a month with 31 days, like this month. January.
• That means she is sending 1,129 text messages every 24 hours.
• Now let's be charitable and say that, since Justine seems like a "high energy" person, she only gets an average of 6 hours of sleep each night.
• That leaves 18 waking hours each day in which to send texts.
• Finally, let's divide. We get: 62 text messages every hour.
• That's right, she's sending more than one text message a minute every minute she is awake.

I'll let you decide whether that should have been the topic of the news report. Right after you sign up for online billing.




Update: April 22, 2008
If the above posting didn't annoy you, then you need to read the latest about "iJustine."