essay about texting and teenagers

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Yousef Almalki

Kathy Lowley

English 201-08

Nov 3,2015

TEENAGERS AND TEXTING

“technology, on its own, does not cause this new way of relating to our emotions

and other people. But it does make it easy. Over time, a new style of being with each

other becomes socially sanctioned. In every era, certain ways of relating come to feel

natural. In our time, if we can be continually in touch, needing to be continually in touch

does not seem a problem or a pathology but an accommodation to what technology

affords. It becomes the norm” (Turkel 425) Teenage texting is an act in which the

teenagers spend most of the their time glued to their cell phones and messaging with each

other. This has been on the rise due to the improvement of technology that in turn has led

to the production of friendly user interface phones that the teens like very much. In this

study, the increase of the teens using text messaging is discussed, the effects of getting

addicted to such texting and how can be overcome.

For teens, identifying less with their families and more with friends of the same or

different sex is a process of becoming teenagers. The hearts of the parents are a little

broken because this draws a meaning that they mostly talk to one another and very rare to

them which is not news to them. It has been going on for many years, and people have

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coped differently (Salkin & Jeffrey 28). However, to really understand an ancient

Chinese curse, today’s parents are discouraged to live in interesting times. Major

technological laps regarding communication have been brought about by the past few

decades. In the 1950s and 1960s, teenagers were best owed with high rise of cell phones,

an innovation that changed the relationships of the adolescent forever, even if they had to

communicate in the hall within earshot of everyone. The 1970s came with phones in their

bedrooms that interfered with dynamics again.

Fast forward to the 1980s, teens were using a lot of time talking; exasperated

parents installed their second lines. E-mails that came in the 1990s and instant messaging

followed. The walk-up to Y2K came with cell phones. And the teenagers of today who

have luxuriated in their own personal pieces of telecom history have to text (Smith 158).

By the numbers, communicating technologically composing off 160 words

messages is only a slight bump up from the messages that are instant. However, social

impact has been seismic. Texting shortens all the forms of communication for the teens

of today. According to the trend trackers based at the Washington D.C in February 2008,

38% of the teens sent a text message daily, which by September 2009 the figure jumped

to 54%. And a year later, undoubtedly the number still became higher.

The same study also found out that the high school girls each day sent 100 text

messages, or 3,000 per month and 15% of the teens per day sends more than 200 texts.

Moreover if you go through the contents of those messages, they are more likely to be

saying the some things you said to your friends when you were of that same age, it is just

in abbreviation form, yet while the medium is extremely different the content of the

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message might be the same with its own pace and distinct texture. Longhand words re

considered elegant and convincing. The telephone allows the emotional resounding to

shorten the big distance instantly. Texting is quick and impulsive, young and without

nuance, eternally available and atomized. And the fabric of our children’s lives is

transformed whether you like it or not (Griesse 129).

Change, of course, is often good because we cannot progress without it. Imagine

our lives without, say, the medicine and the internet. And the reason most teen’s posses

the mobile phones in the first place is potently obvious: they ease the lives of the parents.

Texting is a simple way to keep tabs on children and sync schedules even more than

making a phone call. It is also a channel in which the teens normally ask each other

about homework, keep in touch with others at a far place and firm up plans. Where teens

are involved, anything that eases the information exchange is difficult to oppose.

Consequently, texting overloads the system, what is weighing on parents minds is

if a point has been reached in which too much texting is going on. The way that allows

the children to keep in touch with each other every waking moment of the day and the

non working ones is unprecedented. During your teenage live, you might have used two

hours on the mobile phone every night with your friend, and probably that felt like a lot

to your parents. Nowadays many, if not all, teens caught up in an ongoing conversation

with their friends from the morning until the end of the day, only to continue with it gain

the following morning. This continuation has resulted in a new set of norms and

assumptions; a first thing among them is that any text should come up with an answer

immediately. Some perceptions exist that teens are always available, so if you don’t

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respond faster, you are angry. This brings misunderstanding within friends if the texts are

not conveniently responded to, like if he is sleeping or not with the phone at that exact

time (Bernadowski 93).

A 17-year-old kid in Mexico sends an average 300 text per day. When her bill

was examined by her parents, they realized that a lot were being sent after they thought

their daughter was asleep. Dealing with the problem became as simple as a call to their

carrier to disable the texting during the night hours, but the fact that they needed to do

illustrated the irresistible lure. Communicating with the phone overnight would be

exhausting, and boring. However, texting is low-impact and all sizzle. Any message feels

like it takes no time to send, and the rhythm of waiting for a reply brings a good

miniature reinforcement to loop. When conversation peters out, hours later they can be

revived on a whim. The combination of these alters the results in immense conversational

stamina. And it is normally hard not to see how this constant, if sight, distraction can

cause child consciousness.

Additionally, as the case has been, these teens are allowed to drive whether in the

presence of their friends or alone. During this driving, the mobile phone are the sources

of their disruptions as they keep looking at their phones when they hear the beep in these

phones, they are tempted to look at who is texting them and end up texting each other

even if they are on the highway. This can lead to accidents, and thus something should be

done (Oluwole 2).

In addition, since these are school going children, they end up chatting with

whoever is texting them, and the result is a loss of concentration. By the end of the

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lessons, these students will not have gained anything from the lesson and thus become

empty minded since their minds were just on texting. Additionally, some even may cross

the highway after school while texting which is dangerous as this will lead to death from

accidents. They risk being hit by speeding vehicles.

On the contrary the development is arrested, because this form of communication

is shallow, there is only so much substance you can put into 160 words-is weakening

teen’s growth of emotions, which is the reason the director of the technology and self

MIT Initiative, who has been studying the dangers of the technology on identity for

decades, is endangered. Teens of today would rather text one another compared to

talking. The explanation of this is that texting is more convenient, but going deeper

brings to light that they find revealing in using their own voices. The lack of actual

conversation with their typical nuance prevents teens learning how to study people and

emphatically responding. Of importance, with a phone inside their pockets at all time,

children are never alone. The result of constant communication is that many have a rough

time making simple decisions without having discussions with others, which times may

degrade the confidence in one’s own coping skills (Rogers & Vanessa 112).

In order to reduce the effects of texting and even avoid over texting by the teens,

they should be thought the effects and harm they cause to themselves by overexposing

and overusing their mobile phones too much. Moreover, the parents of these teens should

not give their underage children the phones since they will spend too much time on them

which leads to time waste that could have been used to study.

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In conclusion, when compared the benefits of the cell phone and its harmfulness,

it depends with the user, for teens, the harm is far more than the benefits derived from

using such communication gadget. It is therefore advisable that the teens be only given

the phones when need be and be monitored so that they do not waste most of their time

with them.

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Bernadowski, Carianne, and Kelly Morgano. Teaching Historical Fiction with Ready-Made

Literature Circles for Secondary Readers. Santa Barbara, Calif: Libraries Unlimited,

2011. Print.

Griesse, Rebecca, and Jacqueline Corcoran. Teens Text Sex: Questions and Answers Teens Need

to Know. , 2014. Print.

Oluwole, Joseph, and Preston C. Green. Sext Ed: Obscenity Versus Free Speech in Our Schools.

, 2013. Internet resource.

Rogers, Vanessa. Cyberbullying: Activities to Help Children and Teens to Stay Safe in a

Texting, Twittering, Social Networking World. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers,

2010. Internet resource.

Salkin, Jeffrey K. Text Messages: A Torah Commentary for Teens. Woodstock, VT: Jewish

Lights Pub, 2012. Print.

Smith, Roger D, Roger D. Smith, and Roger D. Smith. Texts to Teens: Sending the Advice and

Wisdom That They Desperately Need. , 2010. Print.

Turkle, Sherry. “Growing Up Tethered.” From Inquiry to Academic Writing. Ed. Stuart Greene

and Lidinsky Eds. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s. 2015. Print.