Americans send around 2.2 trillion texts in 2012, according to the Wireless Association—or more than 19 texts per person per day—but believe it or not, that represents a 5-percent decrease in the number of texts sent compared to 2011. It’s not like texting (also called Short Message Service or SMS) is going anywhere. It’s still an extraordinarily popular way for people to communicate, and even many businesses have begun to leverage it. “At this point, SMS has still got quite a lot going for it,” says Pamela Clark-Dickson of Informa Telecoms & Media in Britain. (AP)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and two children. Follow him on Twitter.