Social Extremity

Derrick Wilson
Communications 305
Research Paper
12/3/12

Compulsive Text Messaging and use of Acronyms: Do Youth Need to Kick the Habit?

Acronyms and cellular phones are taking over Youth culture’s educational word base. The impact of acronyms in texting and Internet websites has expanded substantially. Many children have fallen victim to letting acronyms control their regular talking life. Not only acronyms but also their regular cellphone use as well. Many children with data cellphones rarely get bored because of the excessive amount of applications on their phones. In my view, it seems that every day children are playing outside less because of the prominent use of cellphones. Also children are letting their cellphones control communication situations. Many use some of their texting acronyms to communicate in real life situations. Cellphone use is now not only to get in contact with others it’s now used for sexting, cyber bullying, and other dangerous acts. Will this rise in cellphone use provide a barrier with communication for the next generation?

In today’s youth it seems there is a lot of focus on staying with the digital communication. Since I was young texting was something that I always did, whether it was on my mothers phone or when I was old enough, my own. I realized when entering my senior year of high school that the use of acronyms, was affecting my educational word use. I found myself shortening words in essays as if I was texting. Not only is the use of acronyms bad, but also the fact that the youth is texting anytime they have a chance, including when driving.

In the article: Sexting, Texting, Cyberbullying and Keeping Youth Safe Online written by Robin D’Antonia. She explains the dangers of youth and these multi faceted devices. Not only can youth use the texting capabilities but also new cellphones with picture messaging also allows the to “sext.” Another problem delt with in this article was cyber bullying, which is the most cowardly form of bullying. Students that focus on their texting during class are not receiving as much information from their instructors because the attention is elsewhere. Stated in this article, “Researchers define the term "mobile learning" and its content from various points of view. According to [8] Kaplan-Leiserson (2005) mobile learning is "the new possibilities that are available to people given the mass deployment of devices that everyone now has in their hands and the new connectivity that is coming". Meanwhile, "edutainment" is defined as "the act of learning through a medium [...] any various media [...] that both educates and entertains, or else, entertainment that is intended to be educational" ( D’ Antonia (2010) If we limit our mobile interactions to be solely un-educational, what are we learning?

What really derived my research was the article: Compulsive text messaging and use of Acronyms, Can youth kick the habit? This title first grabbed my attention because I’ve been an avid cellphone user since I was 11 years old. At first I found no problem with my texting and use of acronyms, until like previously said, my senior year of high school. I learned that some of my academic language was based of spell check and most of the words that I thought I knew I couldn’t spell without my cellphone. Which was a problem when writing essays. The research to support the authors claim was conducted like so, “Participants were 211 8th graders who completed a survey about their texting behaviors. Most adolescents (80%) reported sending text messages between a few days a week and every day, with 23% reporting that they send and receive over 100 text messages each day. Females reported greater compulsivity of texting than males. Frequency of texting was related to compulsivity of texting, although only 9% of students reported compulsively texting at the rate of sometimes or more.” At this developmental age the children haven’t really adapted to their own texting styles and are very influenced by others. So although the research conducted shared that only 9% are compulsive texters, that 9% could be the only honest children with the survey, which could lead to an exception in this research.

On the other hand, In the article: Cell Phone Use and Child and Adolescent Reading Proficiency the author explains that children that use their cellphones on an every occasion have better skills in word encoding. The authors of this article were Sandra L. Hofferth and Ui Jeong Moon of University of Maryland. Also explained in the article was that to be able to text, one must have the capabilities to read and formulate thoughts into short responses. Therefore learning communication through something that holds their interest. The way this study was conducted was by the Letter-Word Identification test. “Based upon a large nationally representative U.S. study of children, the results of the present study paint a more positive but nuanced picture of cell phone use and children’s Reading proficiency.” When put in this perspective I couldn’t help but to agree, some of the best practice for me personally was texting. In this study, the use of acronyms to these researchers meant that students were absolutely confident with the extended version of the word and didn’t have to spend extra time spelling it out. This study served as a great contradiction to my hypothesis that, text messaging is ruining the educational word base of children. Also explained “Children whose parents were better educated, who had higher family incomes, who had fewer siblings, and who lived in urban areas were more likely to own or share a cell phone. Among those with access to a phone, children who spent more time talking on the phone were less proficient at word decoding, whereas children who spent more time sending text messages had greater reading comprehension.” (Moon 2012) Their research article concluded saying “These results are consistent with the interpretation that a technological device that increases preadolescents’ and adolescents’ exposure to written words and sentences, especially in ways that are fun and social, may improve their literacy skills.” (Moon 2012) All in all these researchers strongly believe that the new age inventions as far as texting go are beneficial to adolescent success.

So far, my research has stagnated. I seem to find many reasons to why texting has provided lack of educational word base. On the other hand I’ve also found many arguments that have supported texting for the youth. To extend my research I took texting to an educational setting with the article: The Use and Abuse of Cell Phones and text messaging in the classroom: A survey of college students. The author of this article Deborah Tindell’s main focus was to find what exactly youth is doing on their phones during class time. To conduct this research the author did the following; “surveyed 269 college students from 21 academic majors at a small northeastern university to gain a better understanding of the frequency and manner in which cell phones are used in college classrooms. Focusing on the use of text messaging in the classroom, students reported on their own and others’ use of cell phones. It was found that 95% of students bring their phones to class every day, 92% use their phones to text message during class time, and 10% admit they have texted during an exam on at least one occasion.” (Tindell 2012) This research explained everything we know about the youth generation. Personally I try not to use my cellphone in class but because of what I’ve been around since being in educational settings, every other student has always used their cellphones during class. So is this a youth culture epidemic? Or is this the future of educational settings in America? As explained in this article this is an epidemic, youth relies on their cellphones for most situations and the classroom setting is no different.

Why are cellphones such a prominent form of communcication in the youth culture? What are the gender differences in texting? In the article: Joinined-up Texting: Mobile phones and young people my critical questions were answered. The author Helen Haste really focused on age and sex differences with texting giving a deeper perspective on the matter. With the youth, mobile phones are the main focus of interaction if you don’t have one, you are essentially out of the loop. Haste explains that cellphones have provided social acceptance for many youth in this generation. Cellphones provide relationships, because you can communicate outside of school without face- to face interaction. My younger brother and sister are twins and they were my main study through this article. My little sister has a cellphone and has had one since 7th grade where my brother has never had one. My younger brother has had no relationships where my younger sister has had many. Which could have to do with the fact she is always texting her peers from school, connecting outside of school. Where on the other hand my younger brother’s communication with other students only happens in class.

Lastly I wanted to conclude my research with the affects of texting and driving since many youth do this daily and many are losing their lives for it. In the article: Naughty, Naughty: Nearly Third of Teens Text while Driving. The author Eric Savitz puts texting while driving for the youth in perspective by saying one-third of teens partake in this activity. “The data, from the latest edition of the CDC 's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance report, finds that 32.8% of students in grades 9-12 said they had texted or e-mailed while driving a car or other vehicle at least once in the 30 days before the survey. Males were slightly more likely than females to text, 34.9% to 30.4.” (Savitz 2012) This was alarming for me, but not far from the truth because I also partake in this activity.
To conclude, I found that my research extended through all the aspects of texting with the youth. With some of the articles presented I found that texting isn’t as much of a detour ant to the youth’s educational word-base as I thought, and sometimes texting can improve a child’s word encoding mechanisms. Although I understand the exceptions to my hypothesis that texting is ruining educational word base. Texting is still adding as a communication-dividing factor in the classroom between instructor and student. Therefore the educational aspect of texting is limited because the students are distracted by their cellphones. This is not only true in educational settings but also with driving as well. Again I pose the question; will this rise in cellphone use provide a barrier with communication for the next generation? In my opinion and through my research I’ve learned that if the dependence of cellphone use in youth doesn’t minimize, the next generation will have less face-to-face interactions, more accidents from texting and driving, and less respect for their instructors.

References
Hofferth, S. , & Moon, U. (2012). Cell phone use and child and adolescent reading proficiency. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1(2), 108-122.
D 'Antona, R. , Kevorkian, M. , & Russom, A. (2010). Sexting, texting, cyberbullying and keeping youth safe online. Journal of Social Sciences (15493652), 6(4), 521-526.
Lister, K. (2011). Compulsive text messaging: Do youth need to kick the habit?. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering,71(11-B), .
Tindell, D. , & Bohlander, R. (2012). The use and abuse of cell phones and text messaging in the classroom: A survey of college students. College Teaching, 60(1), 1-9.
Haste, H. (2005). Joined-up texting: Mobile phones and young people. Young
Consumers, 6(3), 56-67.
Savitz, E. (2012). Naughty, naughty: Nearly third of teens text while driving.Forbes.com,
36.

References: Hofferth, S. , & Moon, U. (2012). Cell phone use and child and adolescent reading proficiency. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 1(2), 108-122. D 'Antona, R. , Kevorkian, M. , & Russom, A. (2010). Sexting, texting, cyberbullying and keeping youth safe online. Journal of Social Sciences (15493652), 6(4), 521-526. Lister, K. (2011). Compulsive text messaging: Do youth need to kick the habit?. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering,71(11-B), . Tindell, D. , & Bohlander, R. (2012). The use and abuse of cell phones and text messaging in the classroom: A survey of college students. College Teaching, 60(1), 1-9. Haste, H. (2005). Joined-up texting: Mobile phones and young people. Young Consumers, 6(3), 56-67. Savitz, E. (2012). Naughty, naughty: Nearly third of teens text while driving.Forbes.com, 36.