No surprise that we at Mobile Messaging 2.0 are pretty bullish on cool innovations and new developments in the messaging world, so our general position is “the more the merrier” when it comes to increasing messaging usage and applications. However, there CAN be too much of a good thing.

Who among us has not witnessed (or, ahem, even conducted such behavior ourselves) texting while driving, for example? Emergency rooms have seen an increase in patients injured because of distractions from their phones and most recently, Chicago joined the ranks of cities and states that have passed laws to limit phone use while driving. While I’ll be the first one to champion the non-stop connectivity mobile affords us, I also wanted to offer up some tips for responsible texting.

Mobile phone users and the ecosystem of carriers, and application developers who enable them – I urge you to take a moment to consider my “Top 7″ — whether it’s for preserving public safety or your personal relationships, I promise you, your friends, family, and fellow citizens will thank you.

• Rule #1: Just say No: to texting while driving….operating machinery, crossing the street without looking, or anything that jeopardizes public safety.
• Rule #2: Listen to Miss Manners: never text during dinner, church, a date, on a job interview. It’s just rude. (And sometimes really stupid.)
• Rule #3: Don’t forget your grandparents: text to their landline.
• Rule #4: They may not “get” your LOL. While we’re talking about grandma and grandpa, remember that “Text Language” is for texting only! Sure when you’re limited to a few characters it makes sense to abbreviate and use acronyms; it’s a part of texting culture. But don’t forget Grandma won’t understand it when you respond to her joke with LOL.
• Rule #5: Can the spam. There is no such thing as an acceptable unsolicited text. If we don’t know you, didn’t ask to receive your message, chances are we’ll interpret your text as spam, especially if we don’t have unlimited data plans. That’s just the way it goes!
• Rule #6: If you must… do it in person. Don’t underestimate the power of “face-to-face”. SMS and MMS can be great ways to get in touch, find out if someone is available, send a picture in real time, but I say no to breakups proposals, firings, or the like via text. Sometimes some messages are best delivered in person.
• Rule #7: Enough already. (Don’t ‘re-text’) If you’ve texted someone and are in need of a response, don’t text the same request again and again. One of the luxuries of text messaging is it affords us time to reply when it suits us, and sometimes that won’t be for a little while (insert any number of scenarios where texting might be inappropriate). Text once and standby.

Let us know if you have other texting rules of the road. Maybe it’s time to introduce the same kind of shared responsibility as with other risky behaviors and appoint “designated digital drivers” — friends who don’t let friends do dumb things with their thumbs.