Teenage Life Online: Effects of Texting on Interpersonal Relationship

Teenage life online:
The effect of texting on interpersonal relationships

A Research Paper presented to
Prof. De Veyra, M.A.
English 201, 1:30-2:30

Apal, Eljou Khasandra
Caral, Maria Liza
Ibo, Princess
Micabalo, Leodil

September 24, 2012
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION

Did u get the message? Where U now? Text messaging has become more than a trend; it has reformed the day-to-day communication that occurs between people. Where phone conversations used to take place, now the exchange of digital messages has taken over, and in some cases replaced the verbal communication that used to be top to human interaction. Change in communication has direct implications on relationships which rely on text messaging being that text messages lack verbal cues and context. Text messaging has had a negative effect on interpersonal communication. People use interpersonal communication all the time, whether consciously or unconsciously. In today’s day and age, the forms of communication have evolved rapidly to include email, chats, Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, and text messaging. Text messaging has become the major form of long variety communication. People use text messaging to arrange meetings, express their feelings, avoid oral communication, and connect with friends. Text messaging is a fast, convenient, and an easy way to multitask. But is text messaging causing a negative impact on our face to face conversations?
According to Adams, et al. (2008) “Text messaging is quickly replacing face-to-face communication.” Text messaging is used extremely often, especially among college students, because of the effortlessness of its use. (Adams, J. et al. 2008). College students’ have developed a habit of texting in class, in the movie theatre, at the office, in the mall and even text while driving.
Text messaging has had a devastating impact on the nonverbal skill. There’s no body movement, facial expressions or vocal characteristics of any kind with which to measure the conversation from. While in the other hand, text messaging has less impact on verbal ability. It allows the user to send messages into a short form. Example: the “U” represents “YOU”, or using the letters “GTG” for “GOT TO GO”. Lack of Voice communication is one of the reasons for this impact. By having some students of the University of Mindanao participate, my study intends to understand the experience and meanings that are created via text messaging for interpersonal relationships.
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Chapter 2
Related Literature and Studies

College students spends huge amount of time communicating. According to Gaither (2006), “College students predominantly use texting as a way to escape. They use it as a way to get away from the pressures of life and find other likeminded individuals. Mostly they’re looking for entertainment, coordination, and sociability.” We consider the nature of the mobile phone itself as the vehicle of the text messaging craze and what meaning it carries into this study. Below we examine a variety of literature to support of the aforesaid components that have been essential in adding to the research process.

Cell phones- The first phone call made from a handheld cellular phone was made in Manhattan in April 1983; within less than 30 years about 2.8 billion people have become cell phone users (Katz, 2007). The research which has been done on cell phone use has shown some interesting results. Cell phone technology has been adapted rapidly by adolescents. An interesting phenomenon in regard to cell phones is the relatively rapid adoption of cell phone use by adolescents. When looking at gender differences, it is interesting to note that male and female adolescents have taken up the cell phone in almost equal numbers.

Texting- Ten years ago if you wanted to talk to a friend during class you passed notes with the help of your classmates and were careful to not get caught by the teacher. Now, passing notes has gone “high tech” and does not require the cooperation of your classmates. Texting has modernized the age old issue of passing notes; now “passing notes” may be done silently and quite cleverly. One aspect of texting which makes it very popular among students is that physical closeness is no longer necessary in order to “pass notes” to friends. Texting makes it possible for students to electronically “pass notes” to anyone, not just their classmates. Also, texting may be done in mass quantities; one text may be sent to several friends.

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Why Young People Text?- According to some researchers, adolescents use these communication tools to enhance, enrich, or otherwise facilitate easier communication between the people with whom they are already in touch (Bryant et al., 2006). There is little research which indicates that texting increases the size of an adolescent’s social network. Rather, the literature indicates that cell phones supports or enhances existing relationships.

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