Sunday, April 25, 2010

Are teens addicted to texting?

Four out of five teens admit to sleeping with their cell phones or keeping them near their beds. In fact, nearly one out of three teens between 12 and 17-years-old send over 100 texts a day, reports a study by Pew Research Center®. The average adult sends just 10 text messages per day, but older teenage girls — aged 14-17 — send about 3,000 per month. [CBSNews.com]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you think that texting replaces the long phone conversations teens (esp. girls) used to have in pre-cell phone days?

When I was young, that was the way my friends and I stayed in touch--we'd hog the home phone, blabbing about nothing of consequence. I wonder if this is the 21st century equivalent to hogging a phone and blabbing about nothing of consequence? Each text, a little chit-chat?

A question that would also be interesting to learn about is "What are the positive and negative consequences of teens excessively texting?"

I'm definitely interested in this topic, as mother of four children, two of whom are teens (one is a tween). Those three have recently been given opportunity to text.

It's a challenge to stay on top of cell phone/texting dangers such as DWT, texts as classroom distractions, using texts to cheat in classes by forwarding answers to tests, sexting, and the ability to easily forward hastily composed notes that insult & might damage friendships when spread (to name just a few).

It's a phenomenon that affects my household. I must pay close attention.

Chris Meirose said...

Ann,
My guess is that it is D) All of the above. Some kids probably use the phone for talking less because of their text use, and some it probably doesn't change. I do know that among those older students I shepherd at church that they text more than they talk by a very wide margin. The younger students (4th-7th grade) still use it for talking more than texts in what I have seen.

It is definitely a responsibility for both the youth as well as the adult. Making sure you keep on top of what is being sent and to whom is important, regardless of your 14 year old complaining that it is both "Lame" and "an invasion of privacy". You are 14, you don't have privacy yet, at least not in this area.

For sure one of the negatives of the texting is that teens are developing carpel tunnel syndrome from it. That is obviously a minority of kids.