teens and txting, lolz

This week I’m moving away from cyberbullying, but am keeping with part of last week’s theme—mobile phones and, specifically, the use of texting. In earlier weeks I have mentioned how annoying it is to be around someone who is constantly texting. Are they paying attention to their phone or to you? Are they just being rude? Are they not interested in what you have to say? The questions that pop up can be endless.

It seems that kids are getting cell phones at younger and younger ages, which inevitably means they are becoming text addicts earlier and earlier. Texting has become a form of communication that is more popular than talking on the phone (and we all know how teenagers can talk to each other on the phone for hours and hours…). Thus, when teenagers reach the age where they are receiving their driver’s licenses, it is difficult for them to have to entirely stop this incredibly consuming mode of communication while they are driving.  This is a problem that seems to be increasing in its occurrence. In fact, studies have shown that anywhere from twenty percent to more than fifty percent of teenagers admit to texting while driving… and studies also have shown that distracted driving is the leading cause of automobile accidents. And what’s the most common distraction? Yep, you guessed it—texting. Long story short, people really need to use some common sense and just put the phone down while they’re headed from point A to point B. That would probably prevent a lot of accidents from occurring. But a recent State Farm study discovered that teenagers don’t think texting while driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving (in reality, a driver that texts and drives has a twenty-three times greater risk of being in an accident, versus four times for those who drive while intoxicated).

I was recently with a group of mothers of teenagers, so I asked them about the texting and driving problem, and if they had had any discussions with their teen about its danger. They had, which was no surprise to me; however, a number of them had also done something I hadn’t even considered. They had their teens drive stick shift cars. Now, manual vehicles are not very common in the United States, but these mothers made sure the cars they bought for their teens’ use were manual and not automatic. Since driving a manual car requires the use of both hands much of the time (one on the steering wheel, the other on the gear shifter), texting while driving becomes nearly impossible. These parents felt like the likelihood of texting while driving being a problem for their teens was almost nonexistent. The other parents… well, not so much. I think this is a very interesting “solution” to the problem. Plus, it isn’t like these parents don’t trust their children; rather, they felt that by limiting the opportunity for texting, it would be easier for their children to not even be tempted to text, which made them feel more comfortable. I wasn’t able to find any sort of study about this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if their rationale is someday supported and proven to be correct.

Apparently, car crashes aren’t the only thing to be worried about when it comes to teens and texting. “Extreme texting,” or “hyper-texting,” which is defined as sending from at least eighty text messages to 120 text messages per day (depending on the study), poses many other health risks. In addition to an increased risk in driving accidents, texting can cause sleep disruption, trigger thumb, back pain, and neck pain. Plus anxiety, distraction in school, and falling grades. You thought cell phones were banned during school hours in many schools? You may be correct; however, many teens are able to text without even looking at their phones—a hand in a pocket is enough to send a message (though, of course, not for the touch-screen phones, like the iPhone). Teens are always worried about missing something, being out of the loop, and that is one reason why texting is so prevalent.  Some psychologists worry that the increase in texting is changing how adolescents develop, and changing their autonomy.  With texting, teens can constantly be in connection with their parents, which could prohibit them from making their own decisions and growing into their own identities. I’m not sure how much I buy that argument, but it’s definitely one about which people worry.

But that’s not all. A recent press release by the American Public Health Association states that new research demonstrates that teens who hyper-text are more likely to smoke, drink, engage in sexual activity, do drugs, and get in physical fights, among other behaviors of poor health. The study doesn’t say that hyper-texting leads to these behaviors, but that hyper-texting “facilitates or enables” them. Overall, it is a pretty disturbing discovery. Of course, teens who text excessively often come from family backgrounds where parents aren't available (for text regulation, rule enforcement, etc.), which often means the kids have less supervision and an increased risk of bad behavior; there are a lot of reasons why these things may be correlated.

So next time you text, make sure you're not doing it while you drive, or when you're supposed to be actually interacting with real, live human beings.