Text Messaging: Interpersonal Communication

Text messaging, also referred to as SMS messaging, is a popular form of mediated, interpersonal communication that involves sending short messages to and from individual’s cell phones through a or cellular connection to converse with individuals at anyplace and anytime all over the world. Created in 1992 by Neil Papworth, an engineer for Vodaphone, a software company in England, the first text message was sent by Papworth to an executive of the company attending a Christmas party in a separate building; the message of the first ever text message simply read, “Merry Christmas”, it wouldn’t be until the next year that texting would be available to the general public (Peritz, 2012). So at mere 23 years old, Texting is one of the youngest mediums
To do this, the defined what the term ‘maintenance meant, and broke it down into five actions that assisted with the total upkeep of the relationship in question. They assert that relationship maintenance is divided into equal parts of positivity, openness, assurances, social networks, and shared tasks. The researches hypothesized that 1) those in equitable, or fair, relationships would spend more time maintaining their relationship that those in unequitable, or unfair, relationships. 2) Increased maintenance in a relationship would improve satisfaction, and 3) positive affect words like nice, happy, glad, etc, would affect the relationship positively while negative affect words like sad, angry, wrong, stupid, etc, would have negative effects on the relationship. The procedure entailed having the participants complete an online survey detailing their relationship and what forms of maintenance they most often employ, perceived relational equity, and relationship satisfaction. Finally, the participants were instructed to share the last ten text messages they had taken apart in, with the personal information like names and locations removed. The text messages were than analyzed by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Program (LIWC), and studies for the cognitive, emotional, and structural elements of the message. The researchers discovered that on average, more maintenance strategies were used for friendship relationships as opposed to romantic relationships, and that, affirmatively in line with their hypothesis that an increase in maintenance coincided with an increase in relationship satisfaction, except, interestingly, for the trait of openness in romantic couples. Additionally, the researchers discovered that, for romantic relationships, negative affect words had significant negative impact on a couple’s relationship