TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Nancy Lublin: Texting that saves lives

Unscramble the Blue Letters

To most of you, this is a device to buy, sell, play games, watch vdieos. I think it might be a leifnile. I think actually it might be able to save more lives than penicillin.

Texting: I know I say texting and a lot of you think sexting, a lot of you think about the lewd photos that you see — hopefully not your kids sending to somebody else — or trying to translate the atoainbrbives LOL, LMAO, HMU. I can help you with those later. But the parents in the room know that texting is actually the best way to communicate with your kids. It might be the only way to communicate with your kids. (Laughter) The average teenager sends 3,339 text messages a month, unless she's a girl, then it's closer to 4,000. And the secret is she opens every single one. Texting has a 100 percent open rate. Now the parents are really alarmed. It's a 100 percent open rate even if she doesn't respond to you when you ask her when she's coming home for dinner. I promise she read that text. And this isn't some suburban iPhone-using teen pnoeonhemn. Texting actually oienrexdevs for minority and urban youth. I know this because at DoSomething.org, which is the largest oaiiagorzntn for treaegens and social change in America, about six months ago we pivoted and sertatd ficnsuog on text messaging. We're now texting out to about 200,000 kids a week about doing our cagnaipms to make their schools more green or to work on homeless issues and things like that. We're finding it 11 times more powerful than eimal. We've also found an unedntenid cqcnuenoese. We've been getting text mseasegs back like these. "I don't want to go to school taody. The boys call me fagogt." "I was cutting, my parents found out, and so I stopped. But I just started again an hour ago." Or, "He won't stop raping me. He told me not to tell anyone. It's my dad. Are you there?" That last one's an atucal text message that we received. And yeah, we're there. I will not forget the day we got that text message. And so it was that day that we decided we needed to bilud a crisis text hotline. Because this isn't what we do. We do social change. Kids are just sending us these text messages because txietng is so faiimalr and comfortable to them and there's nowhere else to turn that they're sending them to us. So think about it, a text hotline; it's pretty powerful. It's fast, it's pretty private. No one hears you in a stall, you're just texting quietly. It's real time. We can help millions of teens with counseling and referrals. That's great. But the thing that really makes this awesome is the data. Because I'm not really comfortable just hipenlg that girl with clneinuosg and referrals. I want to prevent this shit from hapiepnng. So think about a cop. There's something in New York City. The police did it. It used to be just guess work, police work. And then they started cirme mpnaipg. And so they started following and watching petty thefts, summonses, all kinds of things — charting the future esilsnlatey. And they found things like, when you see ctsrayl meth on the street, if you add pciloe presence, you can curb the otherwise inevitable spate of assaults and robberies that would happen. In fact, the year after the NYPD put cmtpaost in place, the murder rate fell 60 percent. So think about the data from a ciriss text line. There is no cnesus on blyunilg and dating abuse and eating disorders and ctinutg and rape — no census. Maybe there's some sietdus, some linidgtnuoal studies, that cost lots of money and took lots of time. Or maybe there's some anecdotal evidence. Imagine having real time data on every one of those issues. You could inform legislation. You could inform school policy. You could say to a piircapnl, "You're having a problem every Thursday at three o'clock. What's going on in your sohocl?" You could see the immediate impact of legislation or a hateful speech that somebody gives in a school assembly and see what happens as a reuslt. This is really, to me, the power of texting and the power of data. Because while people are talking about data, making it possible for Facebook to mine my friend from the third grade, or Target to know when it's time for me to buy more deiaprs, or some dude to build a better baseball team, I'm actually really excited about the power of data and the power of texting to help that kid go to school, to help that girl stop cutting in the bathroom and aotlsbeluy to help that girl whose father's raping her. Thank you. (Applause)

Open Cloze

To most of you, this is a device to buy, sell, play games, watch ______. I think it might be a ________. I think actually it might be able to save more lives than penicillin.

Texting: I know I say texting and a lot of you think sexting, a lot of you think about the lewd photos that you see — hopefully not your kids sending to somebody else — or trying to translate the _____________ LOL, LMAO, HMU. I can help you with those later. But the parents in the room know that texting is actually the best way to communicate with your kids. It might be the only way to communicate with your kids. (Laughter) The average teenager sends 3,339 text messages a month, unless she's a girl, then it's closer to 4,000. And the secret is she opens every single one. Texting has a 100 percent open rate. Now the parents are really alarmed. It's a 100 percent open rate even if she doesn't respond to you when you ask her when she's coming home for dinner. I promise she read that text. And this isn't some suburban iPhone-using teen __________. Texting actually ___________ for minority and urban youth. I know this because at DoSomething.org, which is the largest ____________ for _________ and social change in America, about six months ago we pivoted and _______ ________ on text messaging. We're now texting out to about 200,000 kids a week about doing our _________ to make their schools more green or to work on homeless issues and things like that. We're finding it 11 times more powerful than _____. We've also found an __________ ___________. We've been getting text ________ back like these. "I don't want to go to school _____. The boys call me ______." "I was cutting, my parents found out, and so I stopped. But I just started again an hour ago." Or, "He won't stop raping me. He told me not to tell anyone. It's my dad. Are you there?" That last one's an ______ text message that we received. And yeah, we're there. I will not forget the day we got that text message. And so it was that day that we decided we needed to _____ a crisis text hotline. Because this isn't what we do. We do social change. Kids are just sending us these text messages because _______ is so ________ and comfortable to them and there's nowhere else to turn that they're sending them to us. So think about it, a text hotline; it's pretty powerful. It's fast, it's pretty private. No one hears you in a stall, you're just texting quietly. It's real time. We can help millions of teens with counseling and referrals. That's great. But the thing that really makes this awesome is the data. Because I'm not really comfortable just _______ that girl with __________ and referrals. I want to prevent this shit from _________. So think about a cop. There's something in New York City. The police did it. It used to be just guess work, police work. And then they started _____ _______. And so they started following and watching petty thefts, summonses, all kinds of things — charting the future ___________. And they found things like, when you see _______ meth on the street, if you add ______ presence, you can curb the otherwise inevitable spate of assaults and robberies that would happen. In fact, the year after the NYPD put ________ in place, the murder rate fell 60 percent. So think about the data from a ______ text line. There is no ______ on ________ and dating abuse and eating disorders and _______ and rape — no census. Maybe there's some _______, some ____________ studies, that cost lots of money and took lots of time. Or maybe there's some anecdotal evidence. Imagine having real time data on every one of those issues. You could inform legislation. You could inform school policy. You could say to a _________, "You're having a problem every Thursday at three o'clock. What's going on in your ______?" You could see the immediate impact of legislation or a hateful speech that somebody gives in a school assembly and see what happens as a ______. This is really, to me, the power of texting and the power of data. Because while people are talking about data, making it possible for Facebook to mine my friend from the third grade, or Target to know when it's time for me to buy more _______, or some dude to build a better baseball team, I'm actually really excited about the power of data and the power of texting to help that kid go to school, to help that girl stop cutting in the bathroom and __________ to help that girl whose father's raping her. Thank you. (Applause)

Solution

essentially
crystal
lifeline
principal
texting
phenomenon
familiar
compstat
diapers
organization
longitudinal
unintended
abbreviations
absolutely
teenagers
happening
studies
actual
faggot
crisis
crime
bullying
videos
census
cutting
mapping
counseling
build
result
police
email
focusing
today
school
campaigns
overindexes
helping
consequence
started
messages

Original Text

To most of you, this is a device to buy, sell, play games, watch videos. I think it might be a lifeline. I think actually it might be able to save more lives than penicillin.

Texting: I know I say texting and a lot of you think sexting, a lot of you think about the lewd photos that you see — hopefully not your kids sending to somebody else — or trying to translate the abbreviations LOL, LMAO, HMU. I can help you with those later. But the parents in the room know that texting is actually the best way to communicate with your kids. It might be the only way to communicate with your kids. (Laughter) The average teenager sends 3,339 text messages a month, unless she's a girl, then it's closer to 4,000. And the secret is she opens every single one. Texting has a 100 percent open rate. Now the parents are really alarmed. It's a 100 percent open rate even if she doesn't respond to you when you ask her when she's coming home for dinner. I promise she read that text. And this isn't some suburban iPhone-using teen phenomenon. Texting actually overindexes for minority and urban youth. I know this because at DoSomething.org, which is the largest organization for teenagers and social change in America, about six months ago we pivoted and started focusing on text messaging. We're now texting out to about 200,000 kids a week about doing our campaigns to make their schools more green or to work on homeless issues and things like that. We're finding it 11 times more powerful than email. We've also found an unintended consequence. We've been getting text messages back like these. "I don't want to go to school today. The boys call me faggot." "I was cutting, my parents found out, and so I stopped. But I just started again an hour ago." Or, "He won't stop raping me. He told me not to tell anyone. It's my dad. Are you there?" That last one's an actual text message that we received. And yeah, we're there. I will not forget the day we got that text message. And so it was that day that we decided we needed to build a crisis text hotline. Because this isn't what we do. We do social change. Kids are just sending us these text messages because texting is so familiar and comfortable to them and there's nowhere else to turn that they're sending them to us. So think about it, a text hotline; it's pretty powerful. It's fast, it's pretty private. No one hears you in a stall, you're just texting quietly. It's real time. We can help millions of teens with counseling and referrals. That's great. But the thing that really makes this awesome is the data. Because I'm not really comfortable just helping that girl with counseling and referrals. I want to prevent this shit from happening. So think about a cop. There's something in New York City. The police did it. It used to be just guess work, police work. And then they started crime mapping. And so they started following and watching petty thefts, summonses, all kinds of things — charting the future essentially. And they found things like, when you see crystal meth on the street, if you add police presence, you can curb the otherwise inevitable spate of assaults and robberies that would happen. In fact, the year after the NYPD put CompStat in place, the murder rate fell 60 percent. So think about the data from a crisis text line. There is no census on bullying and dating abuse and eating disorders and cutting and rape — no census. Maybe there's some studies, some longitudinal studies, that cost lots of money and took lots of time. Or maybe there's some anecdotal evidence. Imagine having real time data on every one of those issues. You could inform legislation. You could inform school policy. You could say to a principal, "You're having a problem every Thursday at three o'clock. What's going on in your school?" You could see the immediate impact of legislation or a hateful speech that somebody gives in a school assembly and see what happens as a result. This is really, to me, the power of texting and the power of data. Because while people are talking about data, making it possible for Facebook to mine my friend from the third grade, or Target to know when it's time for me to buy more diapers, or some dude to build a better baseball team, I'm actually really excited about the power of data and the power of texting to help that kid go to school, to help that girl stop cutting in the bathroom and absolutely to help that girl whose father's raping her. Thank you. (Applause)

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
text messages	3
percent open	2
open rate	2
social change	2
text message	2
crisis text	2
real time	2

ngrams of length 3

collocation	frequency
percent open rate	2

Important Words

abbreviations
absolutely
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actual
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alarmed
america
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applause
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