How Compulsivetextiaffects Teens at Schoo

TEXTING CONS

ByASHLEY WELCHCBS NEWSOctober 5, 2015, 12:56 PM

How compulsivetextiaffects teens at schoo

Compulsive texting is more likely to have a negative academic impact on teen girls than boys, researchers say.

Last Updated Oct 5, 2015 5:15 PM EDT

It's no secret that teens love texting. Surveys show it has become their preferred form of communication, with adolescents sending and receiving an average of 167 texts per day.

Most of the discussions surroundingtexting and teenshave focused on the effect texting has on social skills and face-to-face social interactions, as well as it being adangerous distraction while driving. But a new study suggests that when texting becomes a compulsive habit, it can harm teens academically. This association, however, was only seen in girls.

"It appears that it is the compulsive nature of texting, rather than sheer frequency, that is problematic," lead researcher Kelly M. Lister-Landman, PhD, of Delaware County Community College, said in a statement. "Compulsive texting is more complex than frequency of texting. It involves trying and failing to cut back on texting, becoming defensive when challenged about the behavior, and feeling frustrated when one can't do it."

Lister-Landman and her colleagues surveyed 403 students in grades eight and 11 in a semirural town in the Midwest. The researchers designed a scale measuring compulsive texting by asking students questions like: "How often do you find that you text longer than you intended?" "How often do you check your texts before doing something else that you need to do?" "How often do you try to cut down the amount of time you spendtextingand fail?" and "How often do you find yourself frustrated because you want to text but you have to wait?"

The students also answered questions about the number of texts they send per day, their grades and their attitudes toward school.

The results of the study, published by the American Psychological Association, showed that girls do not text more frequently than boys, but they are more likely to be negatively affected academically by compulsive texting behaviors.

The reason, Lister-Landman suggests, may lie in gender differences regarding why teens text. Previous research shows that teen boys use digital technology to convey information, while girls use it for social interaction and to nurture relationships.

"Girls in this developmental stage also are more likely than boys to ruminate with others, or engage in obsessive, preoccupied thinking, across contexts," Lister-Landman said. "Therefore, it may be that the nature of the texts girls send and receive is more distracting, thus interfering with their academic adjustment."

The authors note that the study was limited to a relatively small sample and more research is needed to see if the results apply to other student populations. Lister-Landman said future studies should entail observing students while texting, scrutinizing monthly phone bills and interviewing parents, as well as focusing on their motivations for texting and the impact of multitasking onacademic performance.

Lister-Landman said there are steps parents can take if they believe compulsive texting is negatively affecting their teens.

"We recommend that parents encourage open lines of communication with their teens about texting behaviors and ask general questions to understand their teens' frequency of use and any indicators of compulsive use," she told CBS News. "It would be helpful for parents to look for signs of whether texting seems stressful for their teens, particularly if they have difficulty cutting back their texting or seem anxious when they are unable to text."

If children report stress, or if texting seems to be interfering with their daily lives, parents should intervene. "For instance, it may be helpful for parents to establish 'screen free' time periods or zones in the home, such as at the dinner table or during homework," Lister-Landman said. "Teens regularly multi-task, and establishing boundaries to cut down on the teens' divided attention could prove beneficial.

"Additionally, parents should look for signs of texting interfering with their teens' sleep and intervene as necessary, as delaying sleep or losing sleep due to texting can negatively impact academic performance and attention during the school day."

We never talk any more: The problem with text messaging

By Jeffrey Kluger

Updated 4:56 PM ET, Fri August 31, 2012- CNN

Americans age 18-29 send an average of almost 88 texts per day, and that number is rising.

Story highlights

As texting use rises, the phone call is becoming a dying institution
American age 18-29 send an average of nearly 88 text messages a day
Psychologists worry social skills in young texters won't develop
Habitual texters may hurt relationships, miss out on new ones

You do not want to talk to me on the phone. How do I know? Because I don't want to talk to you on the phone. Nothing personal, I just can't stand the thing.

I find it intrusive and somehow presumptuous. It sounds off insolently whenever it chooses and expects me to drop whatever I'm doing and, well, engage. With others! When I absolutely must, I take the call, but I don't do a very good job of concealing my displeasure. A close family member once offered his opinion that I exhibit the phone manners of a goat, then promptly withdrew the charge — out of fairness to goats.

So it was with profound relief that I embraced the arrival of e-mail and, later, texting. They meant a conversation I could control — utterly. I get to say exactly what I want exactly when I want to say it. It consumes no more time than I want it to and, to a much greater degree than is possible with a phone call, I get to decide if it takes place at all. That might make me misanthropic. It surely makes me a crank. But it doesn't make me unusual.

(Read about the TIME Mobility Poll here.)

The telephone call is a dying institution. The number of text messages sent monthly in the U.S. exploded from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010, according to a Pew Institute survey, and the trend shows no signs of abating. Not all of that growth has come out of the hide of old-fashioned phoning, but it is clearly taking a bite — particularly among the young.

Americans ages 18-29 send and receive an average of nearly 88 text messages per day, compared to 17 phone calls. The numbers change as we get older, with the overall frequency of all communication declining, but even in the 65 and over group, daily texting still edges calling 4.7 to 3.8. In the TIME mobility poll, 32% of all respondents said they'd rather communicate by text than phone, even with people they know very well. This is truer still in the workplace, where communication is between colleagues who are often not friends at all. "No more trying to find time to call and chit-chat," is how one poll respondent described the business appeal of texting over talking.

The problem, of course, is what's lost when that chit-chat goes. Developmental psychologists studying the impact of texting worry especially about young people, not just because kids are such promiscuous users of the technology, but because their interpersonal skills — such as they are — have not yet fully formed. Most adults were fixed social quantities when they first got their hands on a text-capable mobile device, and while their ability to have a face-to-face conversation may have eroded in recent years, it's pretty well locked in. Not so with teens. As TIME hasreported previously, MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle is one of the leading researchers looking into the effects of texting on interpersonal development. Turkle believes that having a conversation with another person teaches kids to, in effect, have a conversation with themselves — to think and reason and self-reflect. "That particular skill is a bedrock of development," she told me.

Turkle cites the texted apology — or what she calls "saying 'I'm sorry' and hitting send" — as a vivid example of what's lost when we type instead of speak. "A full-scale apology means I know I've hurt you, I get to see that in your eyes," she says. "You get to see that I'm uncomfortable, and with that, the compassion response kicks in. There are many steps and they're all bypassed when we text." When the apology takes place over the phone rather than in person, the visual cues are lost, of course, but the voice — and the sense of hurt and contrition it can convey — is preserved.

Part of the appeal of texting in these situations is that it's less painful — but the pain is the point. "The complexity and messiness of human communication gets shortchanged," Turkle says. "Those things are what lead to better relationships."

Habitual texters may not only cheat their existing relationships, they can also limit their ability to form future ones since they don't get to practice the art of interpreting nonverbal visual cues. There's a reason it's so easy to lie to small kids ("Santa really, truly did bring those presents") and that's because they're functional illiterates when it comes to reading inflection and facial expressions. As with real reading, the ability to comprehend subtlety and complexity comes only with time and a lot of experience. If you don't adequately acquire those skills, moving out into the real world of real people can actually become quite scary. "I talk to kids and they describe their fear of conversation," says Turkle. "An 18-year-old I interviewed recently said, 'Someday, but certainly not now, I want to learn to have a conversation.'"

Adults are much less likely to be so conversation-phobic, but they do become conversation-avoidant — mostly because it's easier. Texting an obligatory birthday greeting means you don't have to fake an enthusiasm you're not really feeling. Texting a friend to see what time a party starts means you don't also have to ask "How are you?" and, worse, get an answer.

The text message is clearly here to stay and even the most zealous phone partisans don't recommend avoiding it entirely. But mix it up some — maybe even throw in a little Skyping or Facetime so that when you finally do make a call you're actually seeing and interacting with another person. Too much texting, Turkle warns, amounts to a life of "hiding in plain sight."

And the thing about hiding is, it keeps you entirely alone.

How Has Texting Affected the Social Lives of Teens?

Last Updated: Oct 23, 2015| ByJayne BlanchardA group of teenagers texting on their cellphones.Photo Creditaltrendo images/Stockbyte/Getty Images

Talking on the phone is so old school. Most teens today prefer texting. About 75 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds in the United States own cellphones, and 75 percent of these teens send text messages, according to the Pew Research Center's Pew 2010 Internet and American Life Project. More than half of these teens text daily. With texting outpacing other forms of communication, you have to wonder how this technology shift alters the social lives and behavior of today's teens.

Teen Texting Patterns

Two-thirds of the teens surveyed in the Pew research study reported that they are more apt to text with their cellphones than use them for spoken conversation. Their thumbs are flying, since half of the teens who responded send 50 or more text messages per day and one in three sends more than 100. In general, girls text more garrulously than boys, sending and receiving 80 messages a day to the male teen's 30 messages.

Social Impact

Texting means teens are never alone. Feeling constantly connected to friends can be a social boon, but the 24/7 access and the perception of being always available does have its minuses, especially with miscommunication. For example, a teen may get angry at a friend for not responding immediately and constantly to messages, not taking into consideration that the absent texter may be asleep or driving. Incessant contact with friends and getting multiple opinions on every topic may impact teens' decision-making skills, since they may feel insecure or incapable of thinking things through on their own and trusting their judgment.

Romeo Vitelli Ph.D.Media Spotlight

Stress, Texting, and Being Social

How do cell phones and text messaging affect how young people manage stress?

Posted Dec 16, 2013- Psychology Today

The rise of modern telecommunications has transformed the way people communicate, especially young people. Recent surveys show that 96 percent of college undergraduates own smartphones (vs 82 percent of adults overall). Since 2004, smartphone use has grown by more than 5000 percent and the demand for more voice and data services is still greater than ever. For college undergraduates, text mesaging remains the single most popular way of communicating and many students view it as a key part ofsocial life. In 2011 alone, cell phone owners between the age of 18 and 24 reported sending more than 100 texts a day on average and adolescents are becoming increasingly dependent on texting as well.

But what does the rise of texting as a form of social communication mean in terms of the overallqualityof life? Despite news stories warning about the dangers of texting (including texting while driving, "sexting," and texts sent while under the influence ofdrugsor alcohol), text messaging seems here to stay. Research looking at the impact of texting on social relationships, academic performance, and personal safety suggests that being able to communicate digitally helps foster those relationships that are important in a texter's life. While personal cell phones have already promoted a sense of perpetual access (in which people are available to communicate at any time, day or night), texting places even morestresson people to be always available.

For people receiving a text, the pressure to open the message when it received, regardless of what else is going on, is strong. Young people often feel the need to answer their phone at any time, even when preoccupied with something else. It is probably not surprising that most jurisdictions have passed laws banning the use of cell phones while driving and many schools demand that all cell phones be turned off during classes and other school events. Many young people report feeling disconnected when they are cut off from their cell phones, even for relatively brief periods.

This dependence on cell phones and other methods of communicating often leads to a "double-bind" with users feeling stressed over needing to be available at all times as well as feeling disoriented when that contact is no longer available. This "cell phone lifestyle" can create a psychosocial trap for young people and adolescents that affectshealthand well-being. In a2005 Finnish study, for example, Finnish adolescents showed a strong link between cell-phone use and potentially life-threatening behaviours such asalcoholuse andsmoking. Other researchers have found that texting behaviour is linked to measures of physiological arousal such as increased heart-rate, respiration, and muscle tension. Frequent cell phone use has also been linked tosleepproblems and symptoms ofdepressionover time.

One potential explanation for why frequent texting can lead to health-care problems is that texting causes young people to remain in a state of arousal that makes it more difficult to relax or sleep. This leads to a greaterallostatic loadover time due to the cumulative effects of constant stress. While phone and text messaging allows people to stay in touch with friends and family members, is the overall health impact of this kind of accessibility positive or negative?

A newresearch study published inPsychology of Popular Media Culturetakes a look at how text messaging is linked to interpersonal stress in college students and also examined the overall impact of text messaging on health and well-being. Conducted byKarla Klein Murdockof Washington and Lee University in Lexington, VA, the study examined 83 first-year undergraduates on measures of interpersonal stress, academic and socialburnout, number of daily text messages sent or received, and sleep problems. The study focused on first-year undergraduates since they were most likely to be facing interpersonal stress due to their being in a state of transition as they adjust to college life. Academic and social burnout was measured by standardized testing looking atcynicism, emotional exhaustion, and reducedself-efficacy.

Texting at Night Affects Teens’ Sleep, Academic Performance

Rutgers researcher finds that instant messaging in the dark makes a difference compared to having the lights on

Friday, January 22, 2016

By Patti Verbanas

Students who texted in bed in the dark reported significantly poorer academic performance and were sleepier during the day than their peers who shut off their smartphones when they turned off the lights.