Teens and Text Messages (Or Media and Stats)
A study on the mobile phone usage patterns of people aged 12-17 has just been released. All the news outlets are rushing to cover it. They’re offering basic synopses, cute little tidbits of facts.
But we all know what will follow. Next we’ll have communication development experts talking about the negative impact of text speech on the ability of teenagers to communicate effectively. Some psychologist will get dragged out to talk about the impact of digital interaction versus face-to-face interaction. We’ll have the First Lady talking about teenagers putting down their cell phones and running around outside.
I have no problem with all of that — I know it’s how the news cycle works. If you watch Today! or Good Morning America (or some other morning show), you’ve seen the same cycle work itself out hundreds of times. I wonder if we’re not starting to developed conditioned responses, though. It feels like we can predict what they want us to think before they start.
I don’t think we can accurately predict the impact of communication on society or individuals with very much accuracy. I mean, when the telephone was being developed, I’m sure that there were questions about the impact. It hasn’t all been rosy. All you have to do is listen to me answer a telemarketing call to find that out. But, the ability to communicate effectively, voice-to-voice, over hundreds and thousands of miles did change society. It made it possible for people to live far away and still feel close. It (and subsequent communications development) led work-from-home arrangements from being something that only farmers and travelling salesmen could do to being an excellent arrangement for both businesses and individuals. It changed, or helped to change, the definition of local. In forty, fifty, sixty years, we might be able to see better how text messaging has impacted our world.
I think I’ll wait until enhanced telepathy inables me to “think” a text message. I can’t manage it now and how can you – what with those huge fingers of yours?