Psychological Effects Of Texting As An Alternative To Talking

People text everyday as a form of communication. It is a frequently used form of communication on a smartphone (Burke, 2016). People like me prefer texting over talking on the phone because sometimes I am not in the mood to talk with someone on the phone. But believe it or not too much texting can affect you negatively in several ways. It can affect people mentally and physically.

Texting Statistics

Five billion people worldwide, which is 65 percent of people across the world use texting to communicate (“44 Mind Blowing SMS”, 2019). In the future, researchers stated the number of people who use texting will increase by 5.9 billion by 2025 (“44 Mind Blowing SMS”, 2019). Most people who use a smartphone in no doubt has used the feature of texting. Using texting frequently is something that 98 percent of smartphone users engage in. (“44 Mind Blowing SMS, 2019). Business-wise, people are more in favor of receiving messages than rather than a phone call or email (“44 Mind Blowing SMS, 2019). Finally, on average 95 percent of millennials use texting (“44 Mind Blowing SMS, 2019).

Consequences of Too Much Texting

Too much texting is not a good thing. It can affect our health. People who spend several hours bent over texting can damage their spine (Schoenwald, 2018). They may need surgery to fix their back and neck so the pain can be relieved (Schoenwald, 2018). Another health concern is it can cause arthritis and joint pain. (Schoenwald, 2018). From a 2011 study, kids are getting joint pain in their wrists and fingers which is the cause of frequent texting and playing games (Iliades, 2012). Also, doctors are coming across patients with arthritis because of too much texting and gaming (Iliades, 2012). Finally, texting and using electronics can affect sleep. (Wavewall, 2019). It can affect sleep because the blue wavelength light that comes from the phone, copies the effect of the sun and the body thinks it should still be alert. (Wavewall, 2019). It affects the circadian rhythm and decreases the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, so it becomes difficult to fall asleep. (Wavewall, 2019).

Ways to prevent too much texting

Some ways to prevent a lot of texting is make texting only for emergencies (Texting Addiction, 2019). Also, turning off your phone at night will help if you constantly keep texting or have the urge to use the phone. (“Texting Addiction”, 2019). In addition, rather than text, talk on the phone instead (“How to stop”, 2019). A fast phone call has the same amount of information as 30 minutes of texting (“How to stop”, 2019). Lastly, turn off all notifications on your phone (“How to stop”, 2019).

Conclusion

Texting is a way to convey information to others. Many of us partake in texting on a daily basis. This is fine, but when someone is texting too much and too often that is where there's a problem. Some problems of texting constantly are health related issues like bending while texting can damage the spine and a lot of texting causes joint and arthritis pain. And consequently it affects sleep. Too much texting may not be a topic that is brought up a lot, but it needs to be discussed more so people can know the harmful reality of it.