Text messaging: one step forward for phone companies, one leap backward for adolescence
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Vanessa LaBode
Abstract
The increasing popularity of text messaging has made this mode of communication the preferred interaction portal for teens. Virtually every teenager has a cell phone with an unlimited text messaging plan. Text messaging easily facilitates communication between individuals without much interruption into daily life. After administering a survey to ten early adolescents and ten late adolescents, the effects of this technology are manifested across many developmental characteristics. Communication, responsibility, and relationships all seem to be negatively influenced by the use of text messaging. This pattern is seen in both early and late adolescent groups. Developmentally, different characteristic features categorize early and late adolescence, yet it seems the use of text messaging is propelling early adolescence forward by removing the consequences of awkward face-to-face interactions. This early onset of late adolescence results in having very young teens, 12 and 13 year olds, showing increased interest in romantic relationships and sexual exploration. The anxiety and uneasiness felt by early teens about speaking with others has led to deficits in the ability to communicate in social settings, which could prove troublesome later. This study looks at only a few developmental issues associated with text messaging use among teens. It would be relevant and appropriate to study other ways that text messaging affects our youth in addition to exploring the more long-term effects of using this technology.
©2011 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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Articles in the same Issue
- Editorial
- Infectious disease, child care and school
- Original Articles
- Sport participation during adolescence and suicide ideation and attempts
- Bullying in middle school: results from a 2008 survey
- Child health and maternal stress: does neighbourhood status matter?
- Drawing the line in the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS): a vital decision
- Alcohol use, related problems and psychological health in college students
- Cross-cultural validity of the scale for interpersonal behavior
- Level of training of nursing staff and the autonomy given to psychiatric inpatients: a multicenter study
- Correlates of identity statuses among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong
- A pilot study: pain, fatigue and stress in maternal relatives of adolescent female psychiatric inpatients assessed for juvenile primary fibromyalgia syndrome
- Text messaging: one step forward for phone companies, one leap backward for adolescence
- Case Report/Short Communications
- Iron deficiency anemia presenting as pancytopenia in an adolescent girl
- Menstrual bleeding patterns in adolescents using etonogestrel (ENG) implant
- Trends and Milestones
- Residential care centers for persons with intellectual disability in Israel. Trends in the number of children 1999–2008
