Texting And Talking: The Implications Of Digital Communication

Abstract

The use of mobile devices was investigated to examine the theoretical implications of texting among the youth. The perpetual use of these devices has raised concerns from teachers to parents and even to professionals. The goal was to determine whether texting influences the youths’ grammar performance and communication skills. The social, psychological and grammatical implications were determined by an examination of related journal articles and online research. The results were mixed with different views and studies, as well as brought possible outgrowth and solution to the problem. The social implications affect the communication and relationship between families and friends, as well as being unable to develop empathy. The psychological implications involve psychological vulnerability to interpersonal stress and the difference how men and women values texting. Lastly, the grammatical implications which establishes how textism - the language of text message characterized by the use of abbreviations and symbols, affects the ability of young generation to communicate and impose proper use of words and grammar.

Texting: 21st Centuries’ Modern Language

Texting is an everyday form of communication, especially among the youth. This has raised concerns about its influence on their English grammar skills. Since production of mobile phones are extremely increasing, young people are increasingly prone also to texting. Basically, the faster the text message is being relayed, means that mistakes and grammatical errors are very common. According to Wil (2018), “English is a beautiful tongue with a rich literary history which does not deserve to be overshadowed by phrases like ‘c u l8r’ and ‘megalolz.’

Thus, texting can drop the literacy level of children. This paper aims to ascertain whether use of texting influences the youths’ grammar performance and communication skills with accordance to various factors such as social, psychological and grammatical implications. The study by Cingel and Surdan (2012) suggests that the perpetual use of mobile devices by adolescents has fueled a culture of text messaging. In short, textism which is popularly known as the language of text message characterized by the use of abbreviations and symbols has linked to poor reading and writing skills, even to language deterioration as illustrated by a corpus study by Thurlow (2006, p. 667-701). Durkin, Conti-Ramsdent, and Walker (2011) reported that between 66% and 80% of adolescent have mobile phones. Around 80% of cell phones have Internet access (Lenhart, 2011), and approximately adolescents dedicate their 90 minutes daily to text message communication (Subrahmanyam and Greenfield, 2008). Hyman, I.E., Jr. (2016) findings’, confirms that age relates to big differences in how many text messages people send and receive each day. Young adults rely on text messages but older adults send and receive substantially fewer texts. Perhaps the biggest problem that might occur is that adolescents may no longer distinguish whether they are writing formally without using textism considering the fact that they were getting used to texting. The trend of using abbreviate words, absorbed from texting, has changed the way people speak- pls for please, tryna for trying to and lol for laugh out loud. These are just examples of how such words becomes a mainstream to teenagers. With a recent look at educational statistics, we can compare the difference of literacy level of children before than the children of today. English is the universal language and it is a very essential skill for an individual to learn basic words and be educated from their own native areas. However, with the ever fast-paced influence of technology, texting becomes an alarming issue for teachers, parents and even to professionals that it might change and impact the exploit of communication.

Social Implications

Texting is changing social interaction of young adults and children. It affects relationships between family and friends by interrupting family time or even keeping the family strong. On top of that, it is a conflict between texting rather than talking. The lack of face-to-face conversations will keep the adolescents from being able to relate and express body language, as well as develop empathy to one another. Constantly connected with friends through texting is socially favorable since it is an activity available 24 hours a day. However, it can therefore interrupt a teenager’s life. This can result to inadequate amounts of sleep and affects both class performance and relationships. Meaning, texting has the ability to establish ineffective communication and social skills. Moreover, Suval (2018) considers texting as impersonal; emotional sentiments are expressed through typing, without clues such as tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. It is probably more effective to have an intimate conversation in person. Sherry Turkle an author and a professor, said in a talk and was summarized by Whelana (2013): “We expect more from technology and less from each other”. Technology has become a crutch; we as a society have begun to lean on technology and immerse ourselves into the life of being connected rather than to have a face to face conversation which is much more genuine and real. We have conversations with each other to learn how to have conversations with ourselves. Texting cannot serve as a substitute for a ‘meaningful connection,’ a connection that is much better formed when you spend the day with someone, where you can really get to know them on a deeper level.

Children nowadays have been much exposed to technology such as gadgets. They have been entertained and controlled by a device which leads them to less creativity, imagination and self-confidence. They are isolated with the advancement of mobile devices as well as provided with less social involvement. Parents continue to raise concerns for the reason that it can lead to an increase risk of exposing children to cyber bullying, sexting (sexually themed text messages), and violence. Also, society contributes to the risks provided by texting such as advertising mobile phones through massive production and creating new trends and by tolerating its negative effects to young children suchlike having poor signs of grammatical abilities.

Psychological Implications

Research by Brooks (2015) discovered that personal use of social media during professional (versus personal) time decreases performance as well as happiness. As stated by Murdock, Gorman, and Robbins (2014), face-to-face co-rumination and co-rumination via cell phone were examined as potential moderators of the association between perceived interpersonal stress and psychosocial well-being (i.e., positive mental health and social burnout). Among potential causes for this problem are two tendencies: students are feeling pressured to respond immediately to text, regardless if its day or night and also sleeping with their phones are nearby, thus being awakened by the alerts from incoming texts. Meanwhile, a study also shows that frequent text messaging is associated with greater psychological vulnerability to interpersonal stress. Murdock (2013) wrote in an article:

'These co relational findings provide an initial indication that heavy text messaging could be problematic during times of stress. Although speculative, it could be argued that text messaging is a uniquely unsuitable mode of communication for coping with interpersonal stress in close relationships. Text messaging may carry a high risk of producing or maintaining misunderstandings and/or unproductive interactions during periods of stress. When interpersonal stress involves conflict, the conditions required for productive communication may be particularly difficult to achieve through texting.'

Therefore, texting fails to provide proper communication and solution in times of misunderstandings and conflicts on both parties.

Furthermore, gender has also a small role-psychologically in the concept of texting. There are different ways how young men and women value texting. Each gender sees different significance with regards to communication and most of this significance does not align to each individual all the time. A communications professor at Buffalo State (SUNY) Ronald Smith said and quoted by Lafata, A (2014) in a blog, that men communicate to convey information and women communicate to create intimacy. For men, through communication they can gather and exchange information. While women on the other hand, they believe that communication is a way to relate, connect and share each other’s thoughts. The problem occurs when men and women views communication in a complete different ways. Texting is a form of communication. Women are texting for the reason that they can have a bonding with one another. While for men, they are bonding through physical activities, sharing moments and skills as well as playing sports or watching movies. Women tend to believe that if a man does not frequently or enthusiastically messaged her as she does, then that means he is not interested with her. This will make women upset and creates a misunderstanding for both of them. Texting is not just the preferred method of intimacy for men. It is about verbal and face-to-face interaction.

Grammatical Implications

In Scotland, a 13-year-old girl submitted an essay written entirely in text shorthand: “My smmr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kds FTF. ILNY, it’s a gr8 plc.” Translation: “My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend, and their three screaming kids face to face. I love New York, it’s a great place” (Cramb, 2003, para. 8). It was very evident that the young girl has been much exposed to texting and adopted the use of abbreviate words and symbols rather than having a complete use of words in a sentence and correct grammar. This is an example of the evolution of texting. It establishes how the standard ways of using English was disrupted by textism and portray how adolescents construct their words ineffectively. Exposure to textism implies exposure to incomplete written sentences and incomplete thought. Additionally, there are three ways by which the use of texting language could harm grammatical understanding: through word-level spelling, phrase-level spelling, and sentence-level conventions (Wood, Kemp, Waldron, & Hart, 2014). The amount of time spent by young people on mobile devices was extremely increasing rather than its amount of time spent on reading a book. In traditional sense, those adolescents who are exposed to reading and writing essay has a good advantage of grammatical skills and that learning by practice will really help them improve their communication. On the other way around, those who are not, has more chance of poor communication and grammar performance compared to others. It is advisable that children at very young age should be taught and trained formal writing sessions and lessons so that they will be enhanced at the same time they can apply what they have learned from the previous years instead of paying much attention to electronic devices that has literally no help and can potentially deteriorate literacy attainment.

Supporting Arguments

Change is inevitable. The development of texting is present all over the world. No one will expect that English language will remain as it is forever. Texting brought different new variations of communication. It becomes a tool of unique and playful means of conveying messages, as well as being able to connect and share individuals’ thoughts and feelings. Moreover, it is very accessible to each and every individual especially those loved ones who are far away and their only means of communication is through texting. According to Halliday (2003), “electronic text tends to lessen the distance between the spoken and written mode; it develops features and patterns of its own, part written part spoken and part perhaps unlike either”(p. 415).

Aside from that, it is very important in the aspect of education that children are being taught to employ different forms of communication. Although writing an essay and writing through text are two separate things, they can actually learn both. The advantage of texting is that it shapes adolescents’ vocabulary learning activities. In one study, results showed that the more abbreviated words that are used, the higher verbal reasoning tended to be (Plester, Wood, Bell 2018, p. 139-140). Also, texting gives children more chances to practice language skills (Verheijen 2013, p. 586). As time goes by, texting may no longer consider as an incorrect form of communication. The use of textisms has started to be accepted among the younger generation as it helps them to engage in a day to day basis with one another. This kind of method does not really necessarily have a negative effect on literacy skills; rather its sole purpose is the speed of communication which sometimes accidentally leads to grammatical errors.

Conclusion

In conclusion, texting has its positive and negative effects to the society especially among the youth. The factors such as social, psychological and grammatical implications will continue to contribute to the ravages of the use of textism in replace with the use of formal words and grammar. The results indicated how texting influences the youth’s grammar performance and communication skills, as well as the mindset of adolescents’ perspective to the ever fast-paced evolution of instant messaging. On top of that, more traditional forms of reading should be done rather than focusing on potential technological ways, considering the fact that through reading from the book is the most effective way for enhancing functional literacy in society (Zebroff and Kaufman 2017). However, some may still support the positive perspective of texting as it promotes social support and expanded social interaction. This study requires the need for rigid network research in the areas of adolescent-technology consumption. At the same time, a vast amount of work remains to be done in this field. Overall, by better understanding the interactions between factors that influences texting, we can convert these issues to more constructively enhance the lives of young people.