(By Tony Ali)
Today more and more teens have cell phones. Teen texting between friends has now overtaken cell phone communications – and every other common forms of interaction. Text messaging has been a vital form of communication emerging from the speedy development of technology. According to a study by PEW Research:
- Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month. One in three send more than 100 texts a day (or more than 3,000 texts a month.)
- 15% of teen texters send more than 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 texts a month.
- Boys send and receive 30 texts a day; girls typically send and receive 80 messages per day.
- 14-17 year-old texters typically send and receive 60 text messages a day.
- Older girls who text are the most active, with 14-17 year-old girls typically sending 100 or more messages a day or more than 3,000 texts a month.
While the above statistics accentuates how teenagers have preferred texting over other forms of interaction in recent times, however, there has been an on-going debate on whether texting does have adverse effects on teenagers’ ability to communicate effectively in other manner.
Is this a time parents need to pick and choose issues of concern? Well, one school of thought believes teenagers know their audience, claiming that if teens were talking or writing to an adult they would be more formal than if they were talking to their friends. And the same goes for academic writing.
Another school of thought believes that Students who use texting frequently extend it to their formal writing either consciously or unconsciously.
Whatever side of the divide you belong, one thing is certain – When people are abbreviating what they write, so much of the time, they lose the ability to form and phrase coherent sentences in real life. If you spend your entire day texting little messages instead of creating actual sentences with your brain and mouth, how can you expect to be an effective communicator? Effective communication has depth, nuances, flow, emotion and tone. Text messaging lacks all of these characteristics.
When people text using shorter words, and abbreviations, it’s because either their word count is running out or, that they are too lazy to put in some extra letters. When they hit that send button, they feel good because they got more words in there text message. What they don’t realise is that when they use ‘b4’ or ‘omg’, there is danger of the brain getting used to these spellings. That’s why you find a lot of teens addicted to texting (aka, txtn).
Also, The more teens text, the less they communicate verbally. If they do not learn how to communicate verbally while they are teens and young adults, they will be unprepared to solve problems now and in the future.
Excessive text messaging does negatively affect an individual’s ability to effectively communicate face to face.
Parents sure have a role to play in making sure teenagers are not overly obsessed or addicted to texting. Parents should give teens limits, and be sure there is a time that the phones are simply turned off.
Having consequences in place and following through with them can help convey to your teen that you are serious. Teens need to learn how to talk and write outside of texting. Parents should be concerned that all the texting may alter their children’s ability to communicate effectively.
