HOUSTON --- When the cell bill arrived, complete with a $300 payment notice, Travis Ramsay was in a state of disbelief.

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Travis Ramsay ran up a $300 mobile phone bill, mainly because of texting charges.

“I was pretty mad,” the 13-year-old said. “I walked outside and punched the wall as hard as I could.”

He was mad because even though the bill was his father's name, Travis Ramsay had to pay it. After all, it was his text messaging that padded the amount due.

Ramsay said when he started texting his friends, some who at times were standing right by him, and he didn't realize the cost. Plus, he said, it was fun.

“It's basically another way of talking,” he said. “You have different abbreviations you have to use. You don't have to write out words completely.”

There is a language, a short hand of sorts with abbreviations like “lol” which stands for “laughing out loud.”

His parents weren't laughing at all when they saw that same $300 bill.

“My husband saw the bill first and turned as white as a ghost,” said Sally Ramsay, Travis' mom. “I went over and looked at it and the blood just drained from my head.”

Texting is a phenomenon with teens. They do it all the time, experts say, sometimes they rather text instead of talking on the phone.

Dr. Anette Edens, a Houston psychologist that specializes in adolescence addictions, says texting is just the way teens stay in contact.

“It's their lifeline,” Dr. Edens says about a teen's cell phone. “The idea of having that social contact is what really fuels them. It is just an important developmental time.”

Edens stopped short of calling texting an addiction. She said it is just the technology kids are embracing to keep in touch and to communicate.

In the course of time, Travis earned enough money to pay off the bill. Then his parents called Verizon and signed up for unlimited texting.